The Red Dog Pirates
by Notsae
Summary: Monkey D. Sakazuki will become king of the pirates; even if he has to burn the world to get there. His dream will leave a trail of burning bodies and blood soaked shores.
1. A Blood Soaked Dream

**A Blood Soaked Dream**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.**

A group of three pirates were harassing a small pink haired boy whilst rolling a barrel into a secluded room. They slung insults and mockery at the cowering figure, laughing at his misery. "Ha, ya thought ya could keep a barrel o' booze from us did ya? What a fuckin' moron ya are!". They used their swords to pry the top off the barrel, ignoring the desperate warnings of the meek child. They swiftly wondered if perhaps they should have listened when a figure over nine feet tall rose up out of the barrel. "H-how the fuck did a big guy like you fit in there anyways!?" one of the moronic pirates asked.

The figure turned his head to look at them, not bothering to answer the question. "Where am I?" he asked, ignoring the shaking blades being pointed at him. He wore a red suit and black gloves, black dress shoes and a large and elaborate jacket, emblazoned with images of dogs made of flame sat upon his shoulders. Beneath his suit was a floral red shirt, visible from his unbuttoned collar and upon his head sat a black cap with "Absolute" printed in burning golden letters across the front. His brown eyes seemed to pierce their very souls as they attempted to shake off the shock of his appearance.

"W-who the f-fuck do you think you are! Give us your gold ya fucktard!" One of the pirates evidently regained his courage and decided to extort the large man; a fist made of magma replacing his head swiftly removed such thoughts. He did not bother negotiating with the others, killing them with a swipe of his still molten hand before turning to the one remaining figure in the room. "Where am I?" he repeated, irritation obvious in his voice.

The small figure trembled in terror, never having witnessed such a brutal demise before, his wide eyes still locked on the burning corpses behind the large man. Somehow he managed to answer before the man decided to kill him as well, "Y-y-y-you're on a-a c-c-c-c-cr-cruise ship b-b-being r-r-r-r-ra-raided by the A-A-A-Al-Alvida p-p-pirates." his words were barely intelligible yet the man understood him well enough. He stared at the shaking, sobbing child cowering before him and asked a simple question, "Where is the food storage located?". He had been at sea for long enough to be quite hungry and he did not consider these "Alvida Pirates" a threat. The pinkette was shocked out of his stupor at the large man's casual disregard of what he considered a massive threat, having seemingly forgotten the brutal deaths of the fools who first confronted him. "ARE YOU INSANE! HOW COULD YOU BE WORRIED ABOUT FOOD WHEN THE STRONGEST PIRATES IN THE EAST BLUE ARE ATTACKING!"

The man simply stared at him, unconcerned. "Your "strongest pirates" are nothing but weaklings; pathetic even considering where they roam. If they were strong they would be on the Grand Line, not the most peaceful sea. I am more hungry than I am worried about the supposed strength of these brigands." The young man gave up on trying to convince the monster of the danger and lead him to the store room. As the man began devouring all food in sight in a somehow dignified manner, the boy built up the courage to ask him some questions. "S-so who are you... and why are you out here anyway?"

The man paused mid-bite, swallowing what food he had in his mouth and turning back to the pinkette. "My name is Monkey D. Sakazuki and I am seeking One Piece." he said simply. "To be the pirate king is my Absolute Ambition, which naught but death may keep me from."

The small boy's mouth dropped open, apparently more shocked than when he witnessed the deaths of three men. "HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT SO CASUALLY! IT'S IMPOSSIBLE, IMPOSSIBLE! TO BE THE PIRATE KING IS TO HAVE TAKEN EVERYTHING THIS WORLD HAS TO GIVE, TO- {CRUNCH}." Sakazuki had no patience for such drivel and had broken his nose to silence him.

"Shut up. If you're not willing to die for your dreams then you don't deserve them." he spoke with absolute resolve, not a hint of doubt in his voice even as he spoke of his own possible demise.

The small boy's eyes watered, awe filling them at the conviction of the man before him. Suddenly his dreams didn't seem so far away. "I-I have a dream as well… I want to be a marine! No, not just a marine; I want to be Fleet Admiral!" Sakazuki didn't hesitate, raising a hand with his pointer finger extended. From said finger a small glob of magma launched out, putting a neat, burning hole in the boy's head; and suddenly his dreams were farther than they ever had been. Sakazuki would suffer not an obstacle to live, no matter how apparently minor it was; for he knew how the weak could grow to be strong and would not allow a potential threat to flourish.

As the young man's body began to cool a large club smashed through the wall, shrapnel flying everywhere, much of it burning up on contact with his instinctive shift to magma. He turned to look at what had interrupted his meal and saw what he at first assumed was some form of whale-bulldog hybrid before realising it was merely an extremely obese woman. She looked at the body of her cabin boy and assumed he had finally proven his worth in an attempt to stop this man. "Kill 'im boys!" she smirked as her men rushed the figure, assuming victory was at hand; never realising the danger the tall man presented until it was far too late. A wave of lava rushed forth from the man's arm, consuming all before him and burning everything it touched. Alvida and her crew were swallowed by the oncoming tide of molten death and died in burning agony, drowning in liquid flame.

Sakazuki stared, frowning as the magma burned its way through the ship, causing it to rapidly begin to sink. He would need to work on that if he didn't want to have to keep replacing his ship (and crew) in the future. He walked casually forward and resumed his search for a boat, noticing a lifeboat rapidly rowing away from the doomed ship.

He stared at it, backed by smoke and flame his tall form took on an even more sinister light as the ship sank into the depths. He suddenly leapt forward ascending high into the sky as the single occupant of the boat rowed even faster. He noticed that he had misjudged his trajectory when he forgot to calculate the rower's evident desperation as he fell. Half way down he slammed his foot into open air and began to "run" towards the semi-distant vessel through the air. He landed on the boat and was immediately smacked on the head with a bo staff courtesy of the orange haired woman piloting the small ship. "Damn you! I'll die before I let you take me! I hate pirates!"

He tilted his head staring at the woman. She shivered under his cold gaze, his eyes coolly evaluating her. After a moment he spoke up, "You have courage and evident knowledge of how to use your chosen weapon… join my crew." He could not be shaken from his chosen path, when he decides you are a part of his crew, you are. End of story. For all the callous brutality and ruthless pragmatism, some small part of him still clung to the childish notion of Nakama. Once you were part of his crew he would kill and die for you, facing any odds to protect you. He was rather like Whitebeard in a way; for if anyone touched a member of his crew they had sealed their death warrant. The woman before him saw this conviction in his eyes but could not overcome her deeply ingrained hate and fear of true pirates all the way.

Before she could scream her adamant denial something forced her to reveal secrets she had kept buried for years. "I-I can't. A-Arlong is holding my home village hostage; threatening to rape and murder my family if I don't keep working for him. He has a marine captain in his pocket stopping anyone from resisting him. If I don't show up with the money to buy our protection he'll kill everyone." She broke down crying at the feet of the large man, some instinctive part of her telling her she could trust him absolutely. Sakazuki stared off into the distance, a deep scowl splitting his face and murder in his burning (literally) eyes. "Then this Arlong shall die screaming." it was not a promise nor a threat, merely a statement of fact. The Red Dog bayed for blood and blood it shall have.

She looked up at him through tearful eyes, a watery smile upon her face. "Th-thank you." She wiped the tears from her face, and smiled at him. "My name's Nami, what's yours?" He looked down at her, his stern face baring just the slightest hint of a gentle smile. "Monkey D. Sakazuki. I seek to be King of the Pirates. It is my Absolute Ambition." He frowned, before looking off into the distance. "How long do you have before you need to report to Arlong?"

She frowned, before responding "One month. After which he'll kill one person for every day I'm late ending with my sister." He nodded in response, before asking "Then we have enough time to do some recruiting. We have one month before casualties begin to mount, and then only one day less than your village has populace. Your life and that of your family and friends are priority, the rest are disposable." He did not care about collateral damage, so long as his crew lived he was fine with any amount of destruction and death. "I have heard that the infamous pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro has been captured by marines. I intended to coerce him into joining my crew by leveraging his freedom. My brothers will be meeting us at Logue Town to join up. That's at least two to three guaranteed recruits."

As they sailed towards Shells Town Sakazuki learned that Nami was an exceptionally skilled navigator, shortening their journey from three days to a day and a half. When they reached the island they strolled up main street and found a restaurant; ignoring the strange looks constantly being sent their way. Nami watched in shock as at a rapid pace pound after pound of food disappeared down Sakazuki's gullet. Somehow he managed to maintain an air of refined dignity even as he devoured every ounce of food in the restaurant. It was like someone had taken the manners of a noble and sped them up a hundred fold. When he was finished they walked out, ignoring the frightened owners cries for them to pay. As they approached the marine base Sakazuki didn't even slow before walking straight through a wall to the courtyard; the stone turning to slag on contact with his glowing red body. He spotted a green haired figure crucified in the center of the concrete yard. "Roronoa Zoro, I presume. You seemed to be in quite the pickle there."

The green haired man looked up, leveling a glare at the imposing figure standing before him. "What'd you want you bastard?"

Sakazuki raised an eyebrow, "Hmm, join my crew." Zoro threw his head back and laughed uproariously. "Hahahahahaha! And why would I, a pirate _hunter_ join you, a _pirate?"_

Sakazuki's constant scowl did not change as he answered "Your freedom for one… and your blades. Whether you join me or not, I'll be razing this base to the ground. If you join me I'll make sure not to destroy your swords in the process; I'll even retrieve them for you." Zoro scowled menacingly, a manic gleam in his eyes. "You fucking touch those swords and I'll kill you, you bastard!" He paused, taking a moment to think over the man's words before grumbling "You must be the devil's own, ya bastard… Fine, you get my blades and cut me down and I'll join your crew." Sakazuki nodded before turning to look at the pompous little shit that just swaggered in and the little girl that came bearing rice balls. "Hi mister Zoro! I brought you some food!" She grinned happily up at the man.

The little blond shitbird cried out, "Hey! What are you freaks doing here! You'll be executed for this! My dad is a-" he was cut off by a glob of magma piercing his head. The two marines accompanying him gaped in shocked horror at his flaming corpse, before swiftly joining him in the burning grave, neat holes in each of their heads. Sakazuki turned back to the girl, glancing at Zoro to see if he knew her. He didn't truly care, the girl was no threat to either of them. He walked away as the girl fed the rice balls to Zoro, who complained lightly about their composition."Nami, untie him." He gave his first real order as captain over his shoulder as he walked towards the base. Nami leapt to do so even as she watched him leap into the air towards the statue being set up on the roof; turning into a huge ball of magma mid way through his ascent. He briefly disappeared into a large storm cloud, before the cloud was lit up by dozens of fist sized lights and one twelve foot wide. They fell and and the base burned, dozens died in the explosions and many were simply engulfed in the molten remains of their base. When the largest meteor hit it landed directly on the statue, destroying it completely. From the hellish scene rose an incredibly tall figure, his form engulfed in flames. He stepped forward, uncaring for the intense heat around him. Marine captain Morgan had been struck by one of the smaller meteors, his ax-hand arm and shoulder were simply gone, and his metal jaw had melted into his flesh destroying his esophagus, carotid artery, and seeping into his chest. Sakazuki stepped over his corpse as he casually strode towards the roof access door, burning through the solid wooden door on his path to find Zoro's swords and kill everyone in the building. It wasn't long before he reached an exorbitantly flamboyantly decorated room; and on its wall above the bed were three swords. He grabbed them and secreted them away in his coat before torching the room. Before long the building was little more than molten slag and any he had not personally killed surely died from the intense heat or were consumed by the melting walls made to protect them. He walked out of the hellishly glowing scene, casually striding towards his awe struck crew and drawing what he presumed were Zoro's blades from his cape like coat. "Your swords, I presume?" He said, tossing them on the ground in front of the swordsmen.

The marimo looked down at his blades, snatching them up and quickly checking for any damage to them. "Hmph, alright then… captain, where are we heading?" The greenhead smirked at him. "Just remember, you get in the way of my dream and I'll cut you down where you stand." he spoke with far more confidence than he felt, for he truly doubted he could actually take this monster that had recruited him. "I'm going to be the World's Greatest Swordsman, no matter what." His captain smirked before responding, "Good, the Pirate King can have no less on his crew." They chattered aimlessly, learning more about each other as they headed for a restaurant. After cleaning the restaurant out they headed to the lifeboat serving as their ship. The sun was setting on the horizon as they set sail, heading for the future.


	2. Snarl Of The Red Dog

**Snarl Of The Red Dog**

Their arrival at the Gecko Islands was interrupted by a large number of flags rising over the shrubbery and a terrified voice calling out, claiming he had a force of ten million fighting men. Sakazuki sneered, Zoro unsheathed one of his blades with a scowl, and Nami barely reacted save to choke up on her bo staff. "Really, so you're saying you have several times more than the total possible population of this island hidden somewhere on it that I can't detect?" Sakazuki's scowl didn't change, "Bullshit." Magma began dripping from his hands, melting the sand beneath him.

The voice returned, even more terrified than before, yet not giving up. "I-I t-t-t-the g-g-gr-great c-captain U-U-U-Usopp, l-l-l-leader of t-t-t-ten m-m-million men, shall not a-allow you to step f-foot on this island; for i-it is u-under my protection!"

Sakazuki's scowl deepened as he responded, "Hmph, you're nothing but a cowardly li-" he was cut off when a small metal ball impacted his forehead, melting as it pierced halfway through his head. Nami gaped, gasping at the sheer skill required to make such a shot on a windy day from cover. Sakazuki smirked, "Hmmm, seems you're quite the sniper… Usopp you say? Son of Yasopp? Interesting...Join my crew."

"M-monster… Wha-what! The great captain Usopp, join you?! Ha! As if!" Sakazuki knew it wouldn't be so easy; but he knew what he must do. He could sense the sinister intentions of someone on the island, and the approach of numerous hostiles. He would wait until they attacked, slaughter them, and gain a crewmate in the process.

"Alright, then show us to the best restaurant in this… town." He smirked, figuring he might as well eat and speak while they had time. Perhaps he could enthrall Usopp with tales of his father, increasing the odds he would join.

They reached the restaurant Usopp claimed was the best in the world; they took his word with a few million pounds of salt. Which, incidentally, is what was on their food. Zoro and Nami desperately drank every drop of water they could find while Sakazuki and Usopp chatted over their meals. Sakazuki regaled Usopp with tales of his father, often manipulating the stories in various ways to encourage him to take to the seas; often implying that it was necessary to honor his legacy. While he subtly manipulated the sniper, he kept track of the approaching pirates; until Usopp suddenly ran away upon checking the time, making up a reason he had to leave. Sakazuki frowned, tracking the liar as he fled; before turning to his crew. HIs eye twitched at the sight of them drinking from an aquarium. "Get out of there, you fucking morons!" he barked, growling as he strode forth to physically drag them out of the restaurant; not bothering to pay. "We're going to follow him; see what he's up to."

By the time they reached the hedge wall outside the large manor, Usopp had already snuck in. Sakazuki, still carrying his grumbling crew, leapt over the wall in one bound. He spotted Usopp in a tree, regaling a young woman with tall-tales of adventures he'd never had. He landed as a butler approached ridiculing Usopp, mocking his heritage, and proclaiming him worthless. Sakazuki scowled deeply, barely restraining himself from killing the fool where he stood. "Oi, butler; servants should know their place. Obviously you don't; seeing as you're giving unauthorized orders on behalf of that girl. She clearly wants Usopp here; yet you're ordering him to leave _and_ telling _her_ what to do. Seems to me you may need a reminder on which of you is in charge here, hmm?" Though he appeared calm as he mocked the butler, his crew could see the tension in his shoulders, the way he clenched his fists, and the sharp rise in the temperature around him.

The butler turned with a sneer on his face, adjusting his glasses with his palm. "Oh? More wannabe pirate trash, I presume? And what would you know about duty, let alone that of a butler, hmm?"

Sakazuki grit his teeth, consoling himself with the knowledge that he would kill him later; for he sensed this was the source of the malevolence on the island. "At least I'm proud to be a pirate. Unlike you; who hides behind false pretenses and lies to keep your malevolence hidden. _I_ proudly fly the jolly roger for the world to see; freely showing the world I am a threat. You hide your true colours; but none can hide from haki. I see the evil within you, waiting for just the right time to strike. You may pretend you're a simple, arrogant butler; but I can see the pirate within you. Even as withered and rotted as it is."

The butler's teeth cracked, he grit them so hard. "How dare you! You break in here, accost the heiress, and accuse me of such a heinous crime as piracy! I should call the marines!"

Sakazuki smirked evilly, a cruel gleam in his dark eyes. "Oh, but we both know you won't do that, right? Wouldn't want to expose yourself, now would we?" He casually walked up to the conceited ex-pirate, towering over him as he stared into his eyes. "This island will be your grave, ex-pirate." he spoke at just above a whisper, so only the butler could hear him. He turned to his crew, ignoring the fuming butler as he walked away. "Come on, let's go." his crew followed him, chuckling lightly when he set the hedges on fire to spite the smug cunt of a butler.

Usopp stared at the imposing figures retreating back, nearly falling out of the tree as his words finally registered. "Klahador's a pirate?" he muttered to himself, trying to understand. He stared at the butler, looking for signs of the malevolence Sakazuki spoke of. To his shock he could actually see it; a shadowed malice surrounded the strange man as he walked away.

When they reached the beach their ship was moored at, Zoro locked eyes with his huge captain. "So, are we gonna kill that smug little shit or what?" he was smirking as he asked, a hand on his prized blade Wado Ichimonji, sliding it slightly out of its sheath.

A dark smirk stretched across the magma man's face as he answered, "Of course. But first we're going to make a little deal with Usopp. Regardless of the outcome, that smug cunt's gonna die."

Usopp ran in moments later, gasping for air. "Wh-what were you talking about? Klahador's a pirate?!"

Sakazuki hid his smirk as he turned to the wannabe, "Haki is a wonderful thing. When mastered to a sufficient degree it can allow you to sense one's intentions; and that butler is just dripping with malice." Now he grinned at Usopp, "A pirate ship is approaching, probably associated with this Klahadore. They'll arrive by dawn. We'll defend your town… _if_ you join my crew."

Usopp gasped, "You evil bastard! ...Fine, I'll join. But only if the village never even learns they were in danger."

The Red Dog quirked an eyebrow, "Oh, and why would you want that?"

Usopp grit his teeth, "Because they deserve to think all my lies of pirate invasions were just that: lies. They don't need to live in fear of the next, unlikely attack. Let them keep their blissful delusion of safety as long as they can."

Sakazuki merely nodded, "Alright then, arm yourself; this will also be a test of your capabilities."

At this Usopp grinned, raising a hand. Before their eyes each finger morphed into a gun barrel before the whole hand became a cannon. "I ate the gun-gun fruit. Every part of me is a projectile weapon. My eyes can function like high power scopes and I can fire whatever ammunition I want so long as I have consumed it in the past. Give me an explosive cannonball and I can shoot a barrage of them back." His grin never faded through his explanation, and Sakazuki's kept growing throughout.

"Seems you're an even better catch than I originally thought." He formed a ball of magma in his hand, cooling the outside till it formed a perfect iron ball. "Eat this. It's filled with magma and will detonate on contact; releasing the lava over whatever it hits. We go full lethal on this crew unless otherwise stated. Can you scale the ammunition to the size of your barrel."

The gunman nodded, "Of course; you know how hard it is to find ammo for… of course you don't. Regardless, yes. Yes I can."

They waited for the pirates to arrive, covering the two beachheads with traps to slow their progress at Usopp's insistence. When the pirates arrived they encountered a nasty surprise; Atop the hill stood four figures silhouetted by the rising sun staring down at them. Usopp opened fire immediately, killing dozens of the rabble. Sakazuki destroyed their ship with a blast of magma. Unfortunately for Usopp, there were simply too many pirates for him to kill them all before they reached the top, even with Sakazuki setting fire to the oil slick. Soon the pirates were upon them, attempting to overwhelm them with sheer numbers. Zoro became a whirlwind of sharp and pointy death, leaving a trail of dismembered bodies behind him. Nami focused on defending herself, often tricking the pirates with her looks; not being used to fighting so many opponents she prioritized not getting swarmed. Usopp turned into a massive amount of multi directional guns, firing seemingly at random, yet never missing or hitting an ally. Sakazuki flowed down the hill, mangling everything he touched, killing dozens with whips of lava and meteors fired from his molten form. Before long not a mook remained standing; and Sakazuki set about executing the survivors.

"GRRRRRAAAAAH, YOU INCOMPETENT FOOLS! IF ANY OF YOU WERE STILL ALIVE I WOULD KILL YOU MYSELF!" The crew turned to look at the new arrival, only to see Klahadore standing at the top of the hill, katanas attached to every finger by a set of gloves. He leapt forward, slashing open Usopp's chest with his bladed fingers. Sakazuki scowled angrily, launching a barrage of meteor fists at the fool who dared harm his crew. Somehow the butler managed to dodge every blow, darting forward to slash the huge man who mocked him. The blades shattered on his suddenly shiny black chest. As the 'butler' gaped at his broken claws a giant hand clasped around his throat, searing his flesh from the intense heat of its molten form. His arms were shattered before he was tossed aside rolling to a stop near Usopp's fallen form. The fallen liar groaned as he turned to the battered form of Klahadore. He slowly stood, shaking with effort and pain, to stare down at the fallen captain. "You… You're scum." so saying he leveled two fingers before Klahadore's eyes, turning them into pistols. "Rot… in hell {BANG!}... bastard." He collapsed backwards, saved from hitting the ground by Nami catching him.

Hours later he awoke, wrapped in bandages and lying in a soft bed in the manor. Somehow Kaya had learned of Klahadore's betrayal and the Red Dog's role in safeguarding the village; she had thusly decided to give them her personal ship: the Going Merry.


	3. The Death Of A Don

**The Death Of A Don**

After a tearful (on Usopp and Kaya's part) goodbye, the Red Dogs sailed away; their new jolly roger flapping in the wind. The pirate flag depicted a snarling red dog made of flaming lava backed by crossed swords of blue and yellow.

After a few short detours they found themselves approaching a floating restaurant called the Baratie. The two half-dead bounty hunters had directed them towards it before they passed out. Nami had treated them for scurvy (and body-wide third degree burns) after they found their burned but still living bodies floating in the remains of a small island Usopp decided to test their cannons on.

A marine ship pulled up alongside them as they went to dock their ship. The captain shouted at them; demanding their immediate surrender. They told him to fuck off. Sakazuki stood near the railing, watching as the pink-haired fool ordered his men to fire a single shot. He reached up, caught the cannon ball mid-flight with no apparent effort, melted it, and fired the molted remains back at them. As he walked away he sensed a single survivor swimming towards the Baratie. Turning, he tracked the figure with his finger; contemplating finishing the job before dropping his hand and walking away to join his crew. They entered the restaurant and were immediately accosted by an oddly proportioned cook calling them scum and demanding proof they could pay. Nami just about shot him for even suggesting they were in any way destitute, yet she still produced money to gain entry. They took their place at a table and were soon waited on by a tall (relatively) blonde man in a black suit. "My name is Sanji. I'm the Sous Chef here and I'll be taking your orders."

Sakazuki stared at the man, evaluating him. "I'll take three of everything." he needed a chef and here was one used to sea life; how convenient.

Sanji gave a strange look before a noise distracted him; a patron had pulled a gun on a waiter. Sanji nearly vanished he moved so fast. The gun went off, putting a hole in the ceiling. Sanji had kicked the man's arm, breaking it at the elbow just before the man pulled the trigger. A swift and brutal beating followed, ending with the unruly customer being tossed into the sea with a broken neck.

Sanji walked over to them, lighting a cigarette as he walked and ignoring the scolding his fellow cooks gave him for doing so. "Sorry about that." he said without a hint of remorse. He took the rest of the crew's orders (spending slightly more time on Nami) and walked away. The food arrived just as the soaked survivor of the marine ship crawled in, begging for food. Whilst the other cooks mocked him for having no money and threw him out, Sanji merely made a cheap meal and served it to him in secret. Sakazuki watched from the roof, staring down at the exchange with cold eyes.

"Hmph, you waste resource on one who can't even pay for them?"

Sanji turned to him, pulling deeply from his cigarette before answering, "No one deserves to starve." his answer was simple and concise.

Sakazuki smirked, "I disagree: enemies deserve no mercy." he leapt down, landing in front of the sea chef. "You interest me… Join my crew."

Sanji gaped at him, "Wha-what!? You can't just up and ask that to a stranger, you bastard! Besides… I can't. My place is here and I can't leave yet."

The Red Dog quirked an eyebrow, "Yet? Hmm… Do you have a dream?"

Sanji blinked at the sudden non sequitur. "Have you ever heard of the All Blue?"

Sakazuki's smirk grew, "Can't say I have."

They chatted till the sun went down, enthusiastically describing their dreams. They didn't notice when the thankful pirate stole a dinghy and rowed away; though Akainu certainly sensed him leave. Eventually their animated conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a battered galleon. The Red Dog glared at it; sensing the treacherous intentions of the captain… and the powerful presence following them. He ran to his crew, Sanji following close behind. He reached the table they were sat at just as a large man in a ragged cloak was half carried by the pirate Sanji fed. Sakazuki watched as chefs and patrons alike panicked at the sight of him. Whispers of Don Krieg and his ruthless treachery echoed about. The large man fell to his knees, begging for food for him and his men. Sakazuki considered killing him right then but watched curiously as Sanji brought out a large bag, presumable filled with food. He frowned, disliking the foolishly altruistic action. Krieg ate a meal like a starving dog, sobbing with gratitude. After he finished his meal he stood up, revealed the strange and gaudy armour he wore beneath his tattered cloak… and shot Sanji in the back. Sakazuki leapt to his feet, firing a fist shaped blast of magma at the golden armoured man as the pompous fool laughed. The blast melted clean through his armour and chest, granting him a swift and agonising death.

Gin stared at the flaming corpse of his captain in horror; the strongest man he knew was just killed before his eyes… and the man who did it seemed to have exerted no effort doing so. He grabbed his fallen captain and leapt away, sprinting for his ship as he dodged a barrage of bullets and cannonballs.

Usopp frowned, "Sorry cap' he got away."

Sakazuki sneered, "Like hell he did!" He raised his fist, firing a meteor fist in an arc to hit the ship. He need not have bothered; for before the meteor hit the ship was cut in twain. His head swiveled towards the small coffin shaped ship that had just arrived, scowling as he saw the single man on board. He was about to name him before his swordsmen did it for him.

"Hawkeye Mihawk… The Greatest Swordsman in the world _and_ the greatest obstacle to my dream." Zoro smirked, untying his bandana from around his arm and wrapping it around his head. "I challenge you to a duel!"

Mihawk quirked an eyebrow, "Oh, and what is rookie doing challenging a warlord?"

Zoro's smirk grew, "My dream is to be the World's Greatest Swordsman! To achieve that I need to kill you!" so saying he leapt forward, all three blades swinging and a cocksure grin on his face. Mihawk yawned, drawing the small dagger he hung around his neck and blocking all three strikes with consummate ease.

"I'm sorry, I'd use a smaller blade but I just don't have one." He sarcastically drawled, knocking aside Zoro's blades and stabbing him in the chest. His eyes widened minutely when Zoro refused to fall or back up. Zoro took advantage of Mihawk's slight distraction; swiping his blades and catching Mihawk on the cheek as he dodged back. Mihawk's eyes were wide, shocked at the determination of the rookie swordsman. "I haven't been cut in years…" he whispered to himself. "Hahahahahaha! You hurt me! You actually managed to cut me! Hahahahaha!" Mihawk kept laughing as he drew his gigantic black sword from his back and slashed a deep yet clean wound across Zoro's chest. "You have real potential rookie! I'll see you on the grand line!" he called out as jumped backwards onto his ship, the green flamed candles igniting as he floated away.

Sakazuki snarled, leaping next to his fallen shipmate; a vicious scowl on his face. He glared apocalyptically at the warlords retreating form; but he did not attack, for unlike his swordsman, he knew he could not yet win such a fight. He turned to his swordsman checking his injuries and seeing if there was anything he could do. Seeing Zoro was losing too much blood; he turned his hand to magma and cauterized the wound. He was even more impressed with his swordsman's resolve when he didn't even scream; merely gritting his teeth till they nearly cracked. The Red Dog tossed his insensate second mate onto his shoulder and walked back into the Baratie, idly killing a surviving krieg pirate.

Usopp had dug the bullet out of Sanji's wound and Nami was stitching it up as best she could. Akainu, after verifying the chef would live and setting Zoro next to him, strode up to the head chef and owner; one Red Foot Zeff. "I saved your ship. Convince Sanji to join me and we're even."

Zeff scowled, "You're a right bastard, you are. ...Fine, the foolish eggplant would always regret it if he didn't take this chance anyways."

With Zeff's help convincing Sanji was rather easy and they were soon on their way. When the Baratie was a distant speck on the horizon, Nami asked Sakazuki a question that had been bothering her for a while. "Sakazuki, you mentioned your brothers would be meeting up with us when we reached Logue Town?"

He glanced her way from his position perched on the figure head, before sighing and turning to face her fully. "Yes, my brothers set out before me; but we all agreed to join together at the entrance to the grand line. Those two are far too lazy to actually lead a crew and merely wanted to explore for a bit while they waited for me to finish the training I felt was necessary. Although, knowing Borsalino, he'll have gotten bored of waiting for me and will have dragged Kuzan off to find me. Honestly, they'll likely already be at the next island."

Nami nodded, then paused; contemplating his words. With a start she lept to her feet, "DID YOU SAY BORSALINO AND KUZAN!? AS IN "YELLOW MONKEY" BORSALINO AND "BLUE PHEASANT" KUZAN!? TWO OF THE MOST INFAMOUS PIRATES IN THE WORLD!"

He smirked, "Yeah, that's them alright."

* * *

On a semi-distant island a tall man dressed in a suit coloured with stripes of different shades of yellow walked alongside an equally tall curly haired man in a light blue vest and dress pants, wearing a darker blue long sleeve shirt underneath. He commented in lazy, mocking drawl, "Ooh, seems we've upset the locals, ne?"

His partner sighed, "How annoying." They were both watching as a fishman half their height shouted at them, backed up by two of his fellows; each of them armed with a wide machete like blade. He shrugged lightly, ruffling his white jacket, the crack like patterns of different shades of blue looking snake-like as he gave a bemused smile. "You gonna deal with 'em?"

The yellow suited man laughed, his black jacket fluttering in the light breeze, the stars emblazoned on it seeming to twinkle faintly. He raised a hand, index finger extended; and shot a beam of light through the unruly fishmans head. Two more shots silenced his shocked friends. Borsalino's sunglasses caught the light sinisterly as he turned more fully to his brother, "Hmph, when will our little brother get here, ne?."

Kuzan gave a heavy sigh, running a hand lightly through his hair, "He should be here soon."

Borsalino gave a sarcastic groan before perking up, "Ooh, how 'bout we slaughter more a these idiots while we wait, ne?"

Kuzan just stared for a moment before giving up with yet another sigh, "Fine. But we can't annihilate the whole island before he gets here. Don't want are introduction to his crew to be on a gutted husk of a village after all."


	4. Brothers Grim

**Brothers Grim**

Zoro was lifting giant weights, Nami was relaxing in her tangerine patch, Usopp was building strange devices, Sakazuki was scowling, and Sanji was cooking whilst the ship sailed on the open seas.

Sakazuki grunted, turning to his crew. "Alright, It's about time I taught you lot how to use Haki. I'll teach the new crew members as they come."

Zoro paused in his exercise, turning to his vaguely psychopathic captain with a raised brow. "Haki? What the hell is that?"

Akainu raised a fist in front of him, coating it in Armament Haki with a flash. His crew stared at his shiny black arm in wonder before Nami spoke up, "Hey, that's what you used to break that Klahadore guys claws, right?"

He nodded, "This is Armament Haki. It reinforces whatever you apply it to; increasing its strength greatly and allowing you to hit Logias like myself. There are two other forms of Haki: Observation and Conqueror's. Everyone can use Armament and Observation, but only a select few can ever use Conqueror's Haki. I, and my brothers, can do so. Conqueror's Haki allows you to inflict your will on others; knocking them out or killing them if their will is insufficient to stand against yours. Observation Haki allows you to sense things around you and read people's intentions. In battle this is often displayed as slight future-sight." He proceeded to instruct the crew on how to gain access to their Haki and training to improve it. "When you have mastered basic Haki to a sufficient degree I'll instruct you in the use of the six powers." He turned his head, spotting smoke rising in the distance. "That's either land or a ship."

Nami looked up from where she was practising observation Haki by having Sanji (at Sakazuki's order) throwing kicks at her. Sakazuki had noticed Sanji's weakness for women and decided to kill it before it became a problem in the future; having a crew member who can't hit a beautiful woman was unacceptable in his eyes and must be stopped. Nami checked her logs and smiled grimly, "That's my home… the Conomi Islands."

Sakazuki's head snapped towards her, "And Arlong." he stated grimly. While Usopp comically freaked out about taking on pirate with such a large bounty on his head, Johnny and Yosaku looked through their bounty posters and nearly cried when they saw Arlong's.

"A-are you sure about this Big Brother Sakazuki? This guy seems really strong."

Sakazuki snorted, "Judging by the smoke and the sudden chill in the air, my brothers have already handled him for us." It would seem he was correct; as they walked towards the Arlong park they saw a large number of shattered, frozen fishmen and manny with smoking holes and slashes in them. They arrived at the broken gates to the racist fishman's base and saw two tall men. One was sitting on a pile of corpses and the other was idly blasting holes in the walls. They turned to them, their faces morphing into huge grins at the sight of their little brother.

Borsalino spoke up first, "Ooh, seems you got yourself a cute little crew brother, ne?" He gave the crew a goofy grin before disappearing and reappearing in a flash of light in front of Nami; staring down at her. His orange shades caught the light and hid his eyes; to Nami he was more terrifying then Arlong had ever been. "I like them." he declared after a nerve racking (for the crew) moment.

Kuzan walked over to them slowly, "I hate to interrupt, but we got you a hideous new statue." He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder, pointing out the frozen form of one Arlong the ex-sun pirate.

Nami gasped at the sight, "Is… Is he dead?" she asked quietly.

Kuzan frowned lightly, sensing something was wrong. "Nah, not till I break him anyway." He watched her as she tentatively approached the frozen fishman. "Why? He asked, curious.

"C-can you thaw him out, but leave his legs and arms?" As she asked she snapped his nose off.

He shrugged, "Yeah, I suppose. Why?"

Sakazuki answered for her, "This… creature emotionally and physically tortured her after killing her mother and enslaving the whole island. I promised her he would die screaming in agony; this gives her the ability to exact vengeance upon him personally." He scowled, glaring at the frozen fishman. He directed his fury at the nearby building, destroying it with a barrage of meteor fists. "Nothing should remain of this monster's torment of my crew member." he declared simply. As it burned tears began to flow down Nami's face whilst she tortured the screaming Arlong, stabbing him with his own nose. Her fury grew to the point where long after he died she kept stabbing and cutting, aiming primarily for the groin and head. Before long little was left of her tormenter but a pile of offal. Sakazuki scoped her into an embrace, comforting her as she sobbed in his powerful arms. He sent a look to his brothers over her head from his position on one knee. They nodded and shooed the crew out, going to inform the villagers of their new found freedom.

"He's dead Nami. His little castle is a burning wreck and you and your village are finally free. I will burn this whole island to destroy every last trace of him if you wish."

She gave him a tearful smile, "No… that's not necessary." She suddenly darted forward and planted a chaste kiss on his lips. "Thank you, Sakazuki."

He nodded, standing up and helping her to her feet. "We should rejoin the others. I can hear a party starting from here." She nodded, following him as he walked towards the loud sounds of revelry. They came upon Usopp loudly belting out lies of glorious adventures he had never had, Zoro drinking entire kegs two at a time, Sanji rapidly flitting between flirting with random women and coercing recipes from the chefs who cooked the massive amount of food. Sakazuki's brothers were leaning against a building, a beer in both their hands. Sakazuki walked up to them, a smile on his face.

"So, how's the little tangerine doin'" Kuzan asked, a lazy smirk on his face as he took a swig from his mug. Borsalino vanished, reappearing with another mug in hand. He tossed the frothing mug to his younger yet slightly taller brother. Sakazuki caught it and took a swig before answering.

"Better. That fishy fuck must've made her life a living hell considering what she did to him. I managed to get her stable enough to get here, but I'm not sure about the lasting effects." he scowled deeply, seeing his crying navigator reflected in his booze. He turned to look at her, watching as she pretended to be fine while socializing with both the crew and people she hadn't seen in years. He frowned, turning back to his brothers. "I see you're not introducing yourselves to me crew. Any reason?"

Borsalino grinned, "We were waiting for you to give us a proper introduction, ne." Tossing his arm around Sakazuki's shoulder, he led the three of them into the party. They partied for hours before Sakazuki was dragged into a secluded room by Nami. She decided to "thank" him a little more… enthusiastically for several long, passionate hours. They awoke to the rising sun; both acting like nothing happened as they got dressed and headed for the ship. His brothers chuckled and wolf whistled when they arrived, receiving Haki coated punches to the jaw in response. Sakazuki grumbled as he took his customary place atop the figure head. His coat billowed about behind him as he pointed off into the distance. "Set sail for Logue Town; the land were the pirate king was born and died."


	5. Smoke Without Fire

**Smoke Without Fire**

The crew was practicing with Haki, Sakazuki barking instruction when he felt it necessary. Borsalino had taken to giving "helpful" advice at random moments while Kuzan was asleep, frozen halfway up the mast. The crew had long since given up on figuring out how or why the blue suited man slept in such random places throughout the ship.

Borsalino was the first to see the distant island on the horizon, he raised an eyebrow at the rising pillar of black smoke. "Ooh, seems there's something nasty going on, ne?" he muttered to himself before turning to the crew. "Land ho! Prepare for battle, Logue Town seems to be under attack."

The crew snapped up, running to the bow and gripping the rail as they watched Logue Town burn. Then, to their shock a pillar of white smoke shot up before twisting to attack the billowing black smoke. "Seems two similar Logia are fighting." Sakazuki declared grimly, watching the two plumes of smoke battle. He turned to his brothers, a dark smirk on his face, "Want to add a little chaos to this party? Kill two birds with three stones?"

Borsalino threw his head back and laughed, his hands turning to light as he gripped his stomach. A tic appeared on Sakazuki's forehead as he noticed Kuzan was still asleep, though now stuck fast to the wall next to the captain's quarters, diagonally above and next to the door.. "How can someone be so energetically lazy?!" Usopp gaped.

Sakazuki sighed, "Well, someone needed to protect the ship I suppose."

Sanji responded, taking a drag from his cigarette, "I don't think Ice-Man here could defend anything while he's asleep." he aimed a kick at said sleep-mask wearing man to prove his point. To most of the crews shock the sleeping man's arm shot out and caught his leg before it impacted his skull. He kept snoring as ice began to crawl up the struggling chef's leg.

Borsalino laughed as he appeared next to Sanji, leg drawn back and already turned to light. He threw a kick faster than anyone could see and shattered his brothers arm; said arm flopped back down as it regenerated. "Hahahahaha! Never doubt what Kuzan can and can't do while sleeping! He could take down a whole fleet of marines and just keep on snoring. Hahahahaha!"

The crew was gaping, "Then why didn't he defend himself from you?" Zoro asked.

"Because we're brothers. He knew that if it's one of us then there's no reason to bother." Sakazuki firmly stated before turning back to Logue Town. He watched the two shades of smoke dueling in the sky, stray blasts (mostly from the black smoke) often knocking down buildings. He smirked darkly, "Seems two fruit are about to be available… I wonder who'll find them?" He turned to his crew "Alright, Zoro; replace those shit swords with something better. Sanji; stock up on food. Nami: loot the place. Usopp: go with Nami but prioritize getting general supplies. I'm going to see where Gol D. Roger died.

They docked their ship and Borsalino flashed away to murder the battling Logia when a shot strayed too close to the crew. He appeared between them, blocking a simultaneous attack with Haki coated hands. He smirked as he twisted their arms, smashing them head first against each other. The two reformed some distance away, growling at each other and the tall newcomer. One was a tall (though far shorter than any of the three brothers) light green haired marine captain wearing, of all things, a bandolier of cigars and wielding a broadsword sized jitte. The other was a grinning pirate (though it looked like he was smiling because he simply couldn't close his mouth over his over-long teeth) dressed in a tattered suit made of black and white patchwork. "Ooh, you're a marine, ne?" Borsalino gave his trademark smile as he created a sword of light. He coated the sword in Haki as he drew it back before flashing away to appear behind the supposed marine, slashing through his shoulder and splitting him in twain. The captain fell from the sky, a shocked expression on his face as his two halves fell away from each other to land with a splat. His head and left arm landed on a roof, the rest splattered on the ground.

Patches gaped at the obscenely tall intruder, unable to comprehend how the man who had matched him blow for blow had died so quickly. He gasped when the man turned to look at him, a mocking smile on his face. "W-wait, please! W-we don't have to be enemies!"

The man quirked an eyebrow, "Ooh, how would that work, ne?" he didn't seem to really care either way.

Patches thought quickly, "I-I could…" The man raised his hand, a ball of light forming on the tip of his finger. "I COULD JOIN YOUR CREW!" he screamed desperately, covering his head with his hands. After a moment he peeked over his arms and saw the man had tilted his head to the side in consideration… and the ball of light had turned black.

"I rather doubt my brother would have any interest in allowing you to join… but I suppose it's his call." He lowered his hand, the ball and sword of light dissipating. "{Sigh} Follow me… Sakazuki will have to see you if you want to join." Patches smirked behind the man, already plotting. Suddenly, the tall man whipped around and blasted a smoking hole in his head. "On second thought: fuck you." Borsalino smiled cruelly as the man's body fell to the earth before returning to the crew. He turned away, walking casually towards the crew with his hands in his pockets; never noticing the smoke rising out from Patches rotted, crudely stitched together body.

Borsalino whistled as he appeared next to Sakazuki, grinning as he detailed the fight to his younger brother. Sakazuki barely paid attention, distracted as he was staring out from the top of the somehow untouched execution platform. He frowned as he noticed something, "So this black-smoke guy is dead?"

Borsalino quirked an eyebrow, his ever present smile not changing, "Certainly, I already told you that though."

Sakazuki merely pointed, "Then what, exactly, is that." he asked deceptively mildly.

Borsalino followed his brothers finger, his smile fading slightly as he saw the moving mass of smoke writhing towards them from the shadows of a wrecked building. "Ooh, that's surprising… and unfortunate." He vanished after saying this, reappearing next to the mass with his Haki coated leg already turned to light and drawn back to deliver a devastating kick… to no effect what so ever. His leg, even coated in, simply dissipated a swath of the smoke for a moment before it reformed into a vaguely humanoid form.

The mass of black smoke gave a laugh like the crackling of a dying fire, flowing away from the tall pirate. "Gakakakakakakakakakaka! You can't hurt me, fool! I AM THE DYING OF THE FLAME!" the clearly deranged being laughed out, flinging forward a spike of smoke; clearly intending to skewer Kizaru.

Kizaru dodged to the side as Akainu came flying down, a gigantic fist of pure, haki-coated magma slamming down on the strange being. He leapt back to land next to his brother; both watching the slowly cooling magma to see if the creature was truly dead. A smoky black spike piercing Akainu's suddenly lava chest gave them their answer as they wiped around, blasts of their respective elements already flying. Akainu gasped, his hand flying to his fully reformed chest as it began to swell. Borsalino stared, barely managing to dodge a wave of smoke the size of a small street (that went on to obliterate several buildings) as he watched black smoke begin to leak from his brothers engorged chest. Sakazuki gave a pained cry before his whole body exploded, spraying the area with molten metal.

Kizaru growled, his ever present smile gone as he leapt high into the air and started firing a barrage of highly explosive shots anywhere near the rat bastard that dared fuck with his family. The weaker Red-Dogs ran for their lives, clutching what loot they hadn't already carried back to the ship as they avoided tidal waves of smoke and massive, earth-shaking explosions wiping out whole blocks. Kizaru maintained the presence of mind to _not_ murder his crewmates in his fury, but didn't give a flying fuck about any surviving civilians. Often the smokey bandit would be seemingly entirely dissipated by an explosion before reforming from the smoke of a burning building.

As the Red-Dogs ran a figure suddenly leapt out from behind a building to block their path. He was a tall thin man, standing close to seven feet but being only one foot wide at most. His face was sallow, his eyes sunken with deep black circles around them. He was pale as death and had an constant frown beneath his hawkish nose, His black eyes seemed to pierce their souls as he stared at them, his long, stringy black hair being blown about by the shock waves of the explosions. He sighed, the sound like a death rattle of an incredibly sick man as he adjusted the red tye of his dull white suit. Straight, white, serrated claws suddenly shot out from the tips of his fingers before he leapt forward with surprising speed. The crew scattered, jumping in different directions to avoid the vertical slash from the corpse like man. He whipped around, his claws shooting out like bullets to lodge themselves in the walls behind Nami (who had barely managed to dodge.

The skeletal man stood up straight, his claws already reformed as he adjusted his round, wire frame glasses to catch the light sinisterly. He gives a humourless chuckle, the sound more resembling a hacking cough than true laughter. He raised his left hand, claws blocking a swipe from Zoro's blade… and his other hand plunging into his stomach. He wrenched his hand out, dragging some of Zoro's shredded intestines with him. He frowned at the falling body of the swordsman. Zoro hit the ground, blood flowing freely from his gaping wound and trickling from his mouth. The deathly figure, turned around… to find two gun barrels directly in front of his eyes. He almost dodged before they fired… almost. His eyes disappeared in bloody explosions as Usopp lowered his hand with a nasty, grim smile on his face. "Rot in hell bastard."

To everyone's surprise the man's head snapped forward with a sickly crack. The man's rib cage ripped through his chest and stabbed repeatedly into Usopp's sides, extending to pierce straight through him. Blood shot from his mouth as the murderous man finally let his perforated body fall to the ground; the blood spurting from his wounds and that of Zoro's mingling with the debris of the ruined town and the remains of its former citizens.

The man turned towards the rest of the crew, his empty sockets and ruined chest sickening them. His ribs twitched and clicked together like the mandibles of some great arachnid; revealing his rotted, malformed innards to the opened air. His bones writhed beneath his suddenly false looking skin, often piercing it and twisting about in the air like horrid snakes. The claws that jutted from his unnaturally long-fingered hands extended to twice their previous length. His teeth had become as needles, his jaw distended and open inhumanly wide; his tongue moved like a serpent, a spike of bone on the tip and obviously filled with his horribly extended spine. His spine had branched out like some horrid hydra, piercing his flesh and writhing through the air like vile, malformed serpents; their ends turned to long, barbed spikes. The wretched abomination twitched as if some malevolent puppet master were playing with his vile toy.

The eldritch horror began to jerkily move towards them with all the grace of a twelve headed deer with roughly severed legs. Frost formed on the windows as it leapt towards the cowering form of the navigator. Before it could sink its many bladed appendages into the orange haired woman, a foot made of solid ice slammed into its face; flinging it into a nearby building, bringing the barely standing structure down around it.

Aokiji turned to the crew with a yawn. Seeing the tears on their faces he followed their gaze to his swiftly exsanguinating crew mates. Thinking quickly he used a localized Ice Age to freeze the both of them solid before they could succumb to their wounds. Having taken care of his dying friends he turned back to the horrid monster that was rising out of the rubble that had entombed it. "I hate to interrupt but it looks like you could use some help here." he gestured to the frozen specialists "Get them to the Merry while I deal with this… creature." They nodded, grabbing the statues that were their crewmates and dashing away. Aokiji frowned at the creature, "Well, you're certainly one ugly motherfucker, aren't you."

He fired a dozen icicles at the creature, watching as it deflected them with twitches of its bone tentacles; though ice began to creep over it from even the most minute of contact. It roared; the unspeakable noise coming from its malformed throat cracking the ice making up Aokiji's form. Aokiji froze the land around him, turning the already destroyed land into a frozen wasteland; a battlefield more to his advantage.

The creature leapt away from the spreading ice, lodging its claws and tendrils into a still standing building. It kept leaping away till it could do so no longer; then it leapt at Aokiji, blocking and redirecting and icicles sent its way. Aokiji dodged aside, receiving a scratch across his side as the creature passed him. He extended his hand and grabbed the back of the monster's neck, freezing it from the point of contact; even when a spike of bone shot through his hand. The spike lost its stiffness and began to whip about; stabbing at his arm in an attempt to dislodge him before the creature was frozen solid. It struggled desperately in his grasp as the ice overcame it; its struggling weakening as the ice crawled up its writhing limbs.

He dropped the frozen abomination; watching it shatter on the ground. He put his hands in his pockets as he used the ice to pull the separate pieces deep under the earth. He flinched, pulling his pierced hand from his pocket to stare at it. He watched as wretched little worms made of tiny human spines writhed in the impossible wound. He flash froze his hand… and broke it off. He threw the arm away as the jagged edge still attached began to regrow the severed limb. He walked away, whistling as the frozen appendage was pulled deep down like the rest of the wretched creature.

Kizaru glared murderously at the laughing humanoid cloud of smoke, firing yet another explosive ball of light at it; to no lasting effect. Suddenly he sensed something even through his rage and glanced to the side. There a bubble of magma was slowly taking a humanoid shape. Relieved elation filled him as he watched his brother reform. He used a skill the brothers had trained for years to gain; they could communicate to one another using a strange combination of Observation and Conqueror's Haki. It was nearly undetectable and even if someone somehow sensed it they would be unable to understand the meaning of it. " _Sakazuki, I'm gonna wipe this fucking island off the map. Get on the Merry with the crew, make a_ **gigantic** _ball of magma and drop it on this place as soon as I'm back on the ship. This fucker can reform out of any ambient smoke; so I'm gonna get rid of the entire fucking island and you're gonna bury this fucker if there's anything left of him in a fucking mountain of solid iron."_ Hearing Sakazuki's confirmation and seeing his still partially formed body slither rapidly towards the ship he turned back to blasting (and now more importantly, _distracting_ ) the smoky fuck. Soon the Going Merry was a great distance away and only Sakazuki's incredible control kept his almost fully reformed body from causing the ship to burst into flames. A stream of magma flowing above the clouds had formed an absolutely _apocalyptic_ ball of _pure,ultra-dense, liquid steel_ to form over the island. Kizaru grinned malevolently steering his foe to the center of the island… and firing a blast of light bigger than his body straight at him. The look of stunned horror on the creature's face as it realized what was happening, and that it could do nothing to stop it was absolutely priceless to the light-man as he used his enhanced version of shave to appear on the deck of the Merry just as the blast went off and Sakazuki dropped the ball.

The whole crew (or at least those who _weren't_ encased in ice stronger than steel) watched as one island vanished… to be replaced with an even bigger one made of rapidly cooling magma. Borsalino smirked as he engraved a massive version of their flag onto the center of the island along with the words " _THE THREE BROTHERS ISLAND"_ beneath it. Kuzan laughed as he set about making it a winter island through the sheer amount of ice he shot at the clouds above it and the island itself.


	6. A River Flows Up It

**A River Flows Up It**

The cheerful mood soon became somber when Kuzan informed his brothers of the state of their Sniper and Swordsman. Sakazuki was furious and his rage only grew when Kuzan told him of the possibility that the creature that did this to them had left parasitic little pieces of itself in their wounds; though it was possible they were uninfected, considering the slash to Kuzans side had had no worms in it. He almost literally exploded with rage, sending explosive blasts of magma at the local sea life. They needed a doctor, fast.

Suddenly Nami gasped, pointing off the bow. The crew turned to look and saw that the horizon had suddenly _became stone_. Where once there was naught but empty ocean there was now a line of solid red stone; and in the center was a mountain, visible from miles away due to it's sheer unbelievable size. Were their situation not so dire Sakazuki would have smirked; instead he merely frowned. "So that's the entrance to the Grand Line, huh? Reverse Mountain… fitting that the entrance is as insane as the sea itself."

The mountain grew larger and larger, consuming the sky's and overtaking the clouds. Nami stood on the upper deck, shouting out orders to insure the ship didn't smash against the impervious stone of that giant indomitable mountain or the passionless wall.

"We're slightly of course… HARD TO PORT!" Nami shouted, slight fear evident in her voice. Sanji nodded, dashing to grab the rudder. He strained his powerful muscles trying to shift their course, jaw clenched from the effort. The wood creaked and groaned before finally giving up with a loud {Crack}; snapping off at the base. Sanji stared at the broken steering implement; cold sweat forming all over him.

"Uh… N-Nami… We have a serious problem." Nami turned to look at him, the frustration on her face turning to horror as he lifted the broken rudder in front of him with a shaky smile on his face.

"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" she screamed, falling to her knees in hopeless dread.

Sakazuki scowled deeply, drawing back his clenched fist. He roared, sending a gigantic fist of magma forth to slam into the side of the canal. The force of the blow changed their course… a little _too_ much. Kuzan sighed, mimicking his brothers actions on the opposite side of the bottleneck, striking with significantly less force and setting their ship on its proper course; rocketing up the side of a mountain.

Borsalino grinned before bursting out laughing, exhilarated by the madness of the situation. "Hahahahahahaha! Welcome to the Grand LIne! Where dreams either thrive _or_ _shatter_! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"

Sakazuki smirked, "Hmph, hope there's a doctor nearby; we damn well need one." He glanced over his shoulder at the frozen forms of his crewmates before turning back with a vicious scowl marring his face. If that smokey fuck or his boney pet were still alive he'd make them regret being born.

On a huge island made of pure steel were once was a thriving port town, a crack opened up near the engraved image of the Red-Dogs' jolly roger; releasing a stream of black smoke with a hiss. Following the smoke a small, white worm crawled out, looking like a rat's spine came to life and wrenched itself from its body after sharpening its head to a needle-like point. The worms grew, slowly taking the shape of a tall, thin man as the smoke coalesced into a vaguely humanoid shape.

Back on the Going Merry; Kuzan commented, "Huh, we're above the clouds." He looked up, sensing his element and nearly gasped at the sight before him. The river they rode up on came to a sudden end; smashing into its brethren in a endless and futile battle for dominance; spraying water into the frigid air in droplets and clouds. The water swiftly froze in mid air, forming tiny icicles flying all around to refract and reflect the light in a thousand different directions and ways; creating something that more than vaguely resembled a halo or corona made to hover at the top of the world. A beautiful sight reserved for only the bravest of dreamers to ever lay eyes on.

The crew smiled hugely, and were one to look at their frozen members they would see that their pained expressions had turned to a giant, tearful smile and a proud smirk. Borsalino shot weak beams of multicoloured light into the icicles; adding to the ambiance. Joyful laughter filled the air as the ship flew above the peak. Soon they inevitably lost the battle with gravity and came crashing back to earth. They splashed down in the opposite canal; rocketing towards the earth at speeds most often reserved for atmospheric re-entry, which may as well be what they were doing.

As they entered the clouds once more, an eerie noise split the thin air. {BWWAAOOOOOH~}. Sakazuki frowned, staring intently into the opaque clouds blocking his ability to see (though not sense) what had made that noise.

They pierced the clouds on their way down the mountain; only to see their way blocked by another, smaller mountain. Nami gasped, checking her charts with wide, panicked eyes. "There shouldn't be a mountain here!"

Sakazuki grunted, "That's no mountain; it's a space statio- er, whale. It's a whale."

Sanji frowned, "Island whales are native to the west blue. Finding one of this size outside of it is extremely rare." Zeff had taught him everything he knew, which was quite a bit.

The whale roared, ramming itself against the grand line with reckless abandon. It stopped only when it was to dazed and bloodied to continue. The crew gaped in horror whilst the brothers simply stared grimly; for they could hear the pain, the _anguish_ in the gigantic creature's 'voice'. Sakazuki's default scowl was set on his face as he stared at the creature. Their was a presence within the whale; a doctor of some skill if he sensed right. His scowl deepened as he whispered to Borsalino.

Kizaru turned to him, an inquisitive look on his face before turning to the whale with a huge grin on his face. He raised his hand, index finger extended and a small ball of light spinning on the tip.

Nami gaped at him, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING!"

He grinned back at her, "Captain's orders, Tangerine." He laughed as he aimed straight for the whale's pupil. They reached the bottom of the mountain as he began firing strobing lights into the whale's eye; gaining its attention and irritation. Nami screamed as the whale roared, opening its mouth to swallow them.

Sanji was mumbling recipes for whale stake as the goliath's jaw closed with an almighty {Click} that shook his bones. Darkness consumed everything… until suddenly they were back outside; floating in a green sea under a cloudy blue sky. Nami, still clinging to some vestige of sanity, gasped trying to rationalize what had just happened while Sanji gibbered in the corner.

Kuzan stared at a small house-boat floating in the off colour water, standing side by side with his brothers. They watched as a strange old man came out of the blackness of his opened door. Around his head grew a semi-circle of large living flower carried a newspaper under one arm and a folded lawn-chair under the other. He turned to them, and stared.

And stared.

And _stared._

Then unfolded his lawn-chair and sat down, opening his newspaper with a flick. Sakazuki's forehead gained a pulsating tic mark. "Oi, Old Man, are you by any chance a doctor?"

He turned to them, lowering his newspaper, and stared.

And Stared.

And _Star-_

"IF YOU FUCK WITH ME WHILE MY CREW MEMBERS' LIVES ARE AT STAKE I WILL FUCKING _BOIL YOU ALIVE, YOU OLD SENILE FUCK!"_ Sakazuki shouted, teeth like a shark and murder in his eyes. He was deadly serious; waste his time while he could be saving his crew and you will _suffer_.

The old man gave a long suffering sigh, "Jeez, can't you appreciate a running gag? ...Fine, I'll take a look at your crew… _if_ you deal with the brats who just snuck in here to kill Laboon." he said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder to point at the two extremely unlucky fools who just got between Akainu and his crew.

Sakazuki snarled as he turned, pumping obscene levels of the will of the conquering king into the bazooka wielding fools. He watched with a sneer as they collapsed off the side of the catwalk, falling into the sea of acid. He turned back to the doctor as their skin began to redden and blister from the acid eating away at it. A huge scowl overtook his face as the doctor leapt into the green sea, swimming fast as he could to rescue the dying hunters. "If that idiot dies saving them before he fixes my crew; I'll drag his soul outta hell just to kill him myself." he growled.

When the old man returned with the two (possibly brain-dead) poachers over his shoulders, he tossed them none-too-gently to the ground and turned back to Sakazuki. "Alright, let me see those crew members of yours." He was let on to the ship and led to the frozen swordsman and sniper. "Well… they're definitely dead alright. They're frozen solid."

Sakazuki just about killed him on the spot, his hands twitching in the air around the belligerent old man's neck. "That its not the problem." he ground out. "We can easily fix that. Just take a look at their actual wounds.

Crocus gave him an odd look before turning back to have a closer look. He sighed, "Alright, look kid, if they are alive despite being little more than colourful ice sculptures, then that's all that's keeping them alive. They would bleed out in seconds from these wounds."

Kuzan spoke up, "Excuse me, but could you fix them if _only_ their wounds unfroze? Perhaps only partially at that?"

Crocus frowned, stroking his crescent moon beard. "Hmmm, yes, I could work with that." He wasn't Gol D. Roger's doctor for nothing after all.

Kuzan nodded and did exactly that, gesturing for Crocus to get to work. Hours later after rather intensive surgery (especially for Usopp) the two were stabilized and slowly recovering in their bunks. Zoro was already grumbling about getting back to training while Usopp tried to milk his wounds for all they were worth. Sakazuki simply smiled at their antics before turning to his prisoners. He woke the blue haired woman with a sharp kick to the head.

Princess Vivi of Alabasta awoke to agony like she had never known before; her mind and body screamed, begging to die and be free of this overwhelming _pain._ Before she could even begin to get her bearings a large hand clamped down on her throat like an iron vice; cutting off any hope of drawing breath. She stared with wide tearful eyes into the merciless dark orbs of her captor. He glared into with such pitiless malice it seemed to scald her very soul. Then she felt something, like a worm made of broken glass, razor blades, and _cold_ thrashing about within her brain… and the pain she felt before become a distant dream, pleasant and comforting compared to the sheer, unrelenting _agony_ her world became.

Sakazuki's sneer slowly lessened as a skill he and his brothers had accidentally created while learning their targeted telepathy ripped through the girl's mind. Slowly his relentless assault became slower and less vicious as he learned more about this girl. After learning what he could without completely jellifying the girl's mind, he let her fall to the earth. His frown had became thoughtful as he stared down at the unconscious woman. What he had learned slightly disturbed… and excited him. Crocodile was almost certainly behind this little coup, and that meant a Warlord was nearby. If he killed Crocodile he would certainly make some waves, and perhaps this Vivi could persuade him to help her little kingdom. While he was certainly no hero, nor did he give the slightest fuck about Alabasta, he had gained a twinge of sympathy for the girl after reading her mind; seeing someone's dreams from their perspective can have an influence, especially on one so dedicated to his own dreams. He may as well help her, it was along the way and he already planned to kill Crocodile anyway.

He walked away, idly executing who he now knew as Mr. 9 with a shot of magma to the head and tossing his corpse, feet encased in iron, into the gastric acid sea. He got Crocus to open up the exit he had somehow carved into Laboon without killing him and set sail. His swordsman was already back to train by the time they were halfway to the bounty hunter trap known as Whisky Peak.

Upon arriving they were immediately set upon by villagers with positively _saccharine_ smiles, declaring their love of pirates and welcoming them with a feast. Borsalino blew the whole fucking island away as they sailed right on past.


	7. Candelabra

**Candelabra**

They arrived at the jungle island of Little Garden to find a thin man wearing a blue and white striped sleeveless vest and glasses sitting atop two dead giants. His hair was in a strange top-knot in the shape of a three; strangely it appeared as if his hair was actually made of the same material as a wick. He gave them an evil smile, turning his hand to wax and firing a swirling spear straight for Sakazuki's chest.

Sakazuki didn't even blink, snatching the spear out of mid air. He looked it over for a moment noticing the high quality in its design before melting it as it attempted to wrap around his hand. "Excellent craftsmanship." he complemented, tossing the melted spear off the ship.

To his mild surprise the man blushed, _fucking blushed_. "You really think so!" he all but squealed, giving an octopus like dance. "It so rare to find someone who appreciates my art!" he paused looking strangely at Sakazuki, then glancing at the dead giants. For all he had acted like a blushing virgin, he was an accomplished assassin for a reason. He knew a hopeless battle when he saw one. This intruder not only carried himself with the confident certainty of one who had real power; but evidently had an ability that rendered most of his own useless. If he could melt his wax than any attack would have to be fully liquid (rarely very damaging, due to it lacking innate lethality and him not having much practise killing with the liquid alone) or his other, mostly untrained abilities he had only recently discovered. He thought about why he had join Baroque works in the first place and realized none of that mattered if this man killed him here and now. "Perhaps… Perhaps we don't need to be enemies."

Sakazuki raised a brow while Borsalino appeared behind the Candle-Man, primed to vaporize his head at a moment's notice. "How's that?" he said, unknowingly partially mimicking his brother in an earlier scene.

Galdino frowned, "No, we must fight… If you win, I'll join your crew and reveal everything I know about Baroque Works. If I win, you join Baroque Works." He was smiling at the end. He wasn't dumb enough to think a betrayer would be allowed to join, but perhaps an honest wager would make the man consider it.

Sakazuki frowned, "That sounds treacherous to me. Trusting one who would betray their organization is the height of folly."

Galdino sighed, "Mr. 0 would kill me at the drop of a hat. Dying for him when he wouldn't do the same is idiotic. He doesn't exactly inspire much in the way of 'Undying Loyalty'. But, while an assassin's word is worth very little, quitting a job when I have yet to be betrayed is deemed unacceptable. If you defeat and capture me, Mr. 2 will be sent to kill me. If you kill him, I'll declare myself an ex-assassin and join your crew; facsimile of honour intact." He smiled somewhat grimly, content with his plan to get out of this job alive. "I'll be the Artist of the crew." he said with a definite nod.

"Alright," Sakazuki said, "I accept." so saying he launched a giant wave of magma with a roaring wolf's head at the front. Galdino fell to his knees in the face of an eruption such as had never been seen before; easily dozens of times larger than the Going Merry. The Inugami Guren rampaged through the massive jungle, carving a deep and jagged trench towards the shell shocked candle man. Just before its apocalyptically massive jaws slammed shut on his already melting form, Borsalino grabbed him(and the dead giants) and vanished back to the Merry in a flash. He grinned down at the quivering wreck that once was a professional assassin as Sakazuki's calamitous attack cut the island into two burning halves before going on to explode in the distance; creating a new island of lava rock.

Sanji decided to comment, draining a pack full of cigarettes faster than he ever had before, "Well… that was quick."

"That good enough; or should we blow up some more islands, ne?" Borsalino drawled mockingly, aiming a glowing finger into the distance where he sensed an island lay.

Galdino hastily nodded, "Y-yeah, that… that'll do. No reason to go annihilating islands now." Being a successful assassin he had killed more than his fair share of people and caused more than one genocide by supporting rather unpleasant people; but the causal mass murder and destruction these people were capable of even slightly disturbed him.

Sakazuki strood over to the shaken now former Baroque Works officer. "Well then, you're a member of my crew now, and everything that comes with it. In order to properly utilize and train you, I need to know the current extent of your abilities… and your name."

Mr. 3 nodded, "My name's Galdino and I'm a Candle-Man. I can control, create and become wax. I can generate wicks and light them, gaining some control over the produced flames. And I can… it be easier to show you." he backed up and turned to wax, growing in height until he towered over the brothers by a good four feet. His had became a giant humanoid candle with round legs like the trunks of trees, coming to a sudden flat end. His left arm ended in a huge blue flame coming from a wick thicker than Sakazuki's arm while the other ended in a hand that could wrap around his whole head with room to spare. His head resembled his left arm only larger and with a face like a white jack-o-lantern with burning eyes. His distorted boomed out from the huge creature, " **I call this from the Candelabra-King. I'm working on improving its size and power along with my control while in it. I can use the flame on my left arm like a flamethrower. All my basic powers are improved significantly but my control drops to match."** he demonstrated his increased power by sending a wave of wax out before slicing it apart with thin whips of of wick coming from his fingertips; unknowingly mimicking one Donquixote Doflamingo.

Sakazuki was muttering to himself with a growing grin. "Variation of the String-String fruit, plus a wax Logia and minor pyrokinesis. Weaker but more varied than myself or my brothers. How very _interesting._ " he smiled like a particularly evil shark, eyes shining as the giant candle suddenly shivered like a tiger just rode a flaming hurricane over his grave.


	8. The Sunken King

**The Sunken King**

There was a chill in the air as they approached the next island. Usopp shivered, "I-it w-was j-j-just so w-w-warm! H-how did i-i-it get so damn c-cold."

Aokiji deadpanned at him, "This is the grand line. Abandon sanity all ye who enter."

Sakazuki merely snorted, watching smoke rise from the island. He could tell whatever had happened was over by now. "Seems there was a battle recently. Probably nothing of value to loot; if we're lucky they still have some supplies."

Sanji walked up to him, taking a drag of his cig. "We could always cook the villagers." His adoptive father taught him that their was no morality to food.

Sakazuki nodded while Nami and Usopp gaped in horror. "I suppose you're right. If they don't have food; we'll slaughter them and make them into food." Sakazuki simply didn't have morals to begin with.

They docked their ship and disembarked; heading out in small groups to get supplies. Kuzan sensed an odd presence on the top of the nearby mountain and decided to investigate. He used a trick his brothers had yet to master and sank into the snow; for what was snow but tiny chips of ice, and he is ice. He rose out of the snow behind a strange figure that stood barely two feet tall. It appeared to be some form of blue nosed, semi anthropomorphic reindeer with a red top hat. "Well aren't you a strange one." He spoke up, causing the little creature (Who hadn't noticed his silent arrival) to nearly jump out of its skin as it whirled around to gape at him. "Excuse me little reindeer guy, but my brother would definitely love to meet you." If the creature was as sentient as its mumbling suggested then Sakazuki would love to have such a unique being join his crew. Even if it had no spectacular abilities he would worry about that after he recruited it.

"Wash! How are you?! How did you get here!?" the little creature was evidently quite surprised to see him.

Kuzan gave the skittish little creature a non-threatening smile, attempting to dissuade it from running away. "My name is Kuzan, co-first mate of the Red Dog pirates. And I believe my brother, the captain, would love to have you join."

The little creature suddenly grew to be almost as tall as Aokiji as it grumbled, "I can't join you! I'm not a human! I'm a monster!"

Kuzan laughed uproariously, bending over as his uncharacteristic out burst slowly faded. "If you think you're a monster, you haven't met my brothers and I; each of us could wipe a small to mid-sized island, at least, of the map with one attack." his smile took on a sinister light as he spoke. "Besides, monsters are the most interesting of people."

Tony Tony Chopper stared at the strange man as his Muscle point faded. "You… really want me to join?" Memories of his adoptive father and his declarations about the glories of pirates and telling him he would one day need to take to the seas. He frowned as he glanced at the smouldering ruins of Doctorine's castle with tearful eyes, he had nothing to bind him here and plenty of reasons to leave… namely vengeance. Blackbeard had driven out Wapol and his men, slaughtering dozens in the process… and killing his final mentor. Eventual the sadist grew bored of murdering random people during his occupation and just left. "I... I… have nothing left," he whispered sadly.

Kuzan frowned, having easily heard the reindeer man's broken whisper. "You don't have to be alone. Our crew is like a family in a way; once you're one of us you'll never be alone again."

The little creature looked up at him with tearful eyes, even though his medical knowledge was on a level few could even comprehend, his mind was still rather like a child's. "Y-you mean it? Y-you'll be my new f-family?" were Kuzan more malevolently inclined in this scenario Chopper's gullibility may have ended far worse than it did. Were Kuzan replaced with Doflamingo (being subtle and manipulative for some reason) Chopper would have been enslaved or worse. Luckily for Chopper, Kuzan genuinely wanted him to join the crew.

Kuzan gave a gentle, if lazy as usual, smile. "Sure little dude. Follow me, let's see what my brother thinks. What's your name?"

He smiled, Tony Tony Chopper! I'm a doctor!"

Kuzan's smile grew, "Oh, you are, are you? How interesting. My brother is going to love you."

They reached the bored form of one Monkey D. Sakazuki investigating the ruins of the Drum castle, kicking over fallen stones to see if he could find anything of interest. He looked over upon sensing the approach of his brother and a stranger. "Kuz- now, what is that?" He cut himself off suddenly, noticing Chopper. "You brought me a present! Now, normally it's a bit of a faux pas to gift a pet, but I love him!" He grinned widely, staring at the suddenly rather afraid Zoan.

Kuzan grinned as Borsalino appeared behind Sakazuki, "His name is Tony Tony Chopper and he's a doctor."

"Ooh, now that's interesting, ne? We could use one of those." Borsalino had his trademark smile on his face as he leaned forward to get a closer look at the little creature.

Sakazuki slightly disturbing smile seemed horribly unfitting on his stern face as he walked up to the humanoid. "So, he wants to join?"

Kuzan began to reply before Chopper beat him too it. "Yes! I want to be a pirate! I have nothing binding me here and only by leaving can I fulfill my dreams!"

Sakazuki's smile grew, "Dreams you say?" and Chopper's fate was sealed.

Hours later, after Chopper was thoroughly indoctrinated by Sakazuki's honeyed words, a distant cannon blast drew their attention. Chopper cried out, "What was that!".

Sakazuki jerked his head at Borsalino, who nodded and disappeared. Sakazuki and Kuzan slowly walked after him; if he couldn't handle whatever had caused that they would see the explosions and simply shave there to back him up quicker.

Borsalino arrived to see a fat man backed up by a handful of sycophantic morons. He didn't bother listening to the arrogant posturing of the bucket jawed loser and simply shot a beam of light aimed for his forehead and one for each of his men. While the mooks fell like wheat Wapo managed to, much to Kizaru's surprise, _eat_ the light and survive.

"Hahahahaha! A peasant like you thinks they can take on a king! Insolence!" To Kizaru's shock the man's finger turned to light and he shot it back at him. Of course it did no damage as you can't hurt a Logia with their own element; any moron could tell you that. A wicked smile spread over the light-man's face as a evil idea came to him.

Wapo's confidence merely grew as the (in his opinion) idiot continued firing beams straight at his mouth. Eventually He began to laugh malevolently as his whole body turned to light. "I didn't even know this was possible, but you just turned me into a logia, moron! You have increased my power exponentially! Hahahahaha!" He demonstrated his power by actually turning to light. Borsalino's massive, malevolent grin slightly disconcerted the newly made pseudo-Logia; but he managed to shake off his trepidation. "What are you smiling about, peasent!?"

Chuckles began to bubble out of the yellow monkey's chest, as he stared at the foolish king. "Ooh, nothing, just that you gave me absolute power over you."

Wapo's eye's widened before narrowing, "What nonsense is this? You spew such drivel at me, a newly made Logia? You are a mere Paramecia!"

Borsalino was nearly rolling, he was laughing so hard. "Me, a Paramecia? HAHAHAHAHA! No, _I'm a Logia._ " he raised his hand, fingers in a grasping position. "Specifically, a _light_ Logia." He clenched his fist as horror overtook the narcissist's features. Wapo form began to implode, his whole (rather disgusting) mass was crushed to the size of pin prick… before exploding like a megaton bomb as Kizaru spread his fingers wide. Half the island was simply gone (though Kizaru had informed his brothers to get the crew back on the ship before he detonated the despot and not a one was killed). Kizaru was laughing hysterically, floating above the smoking crater that was once a village.

He arrived back on the ship to the deadpan stares of the majority of the crew. Kuzan sighed, "And what, exactly, was that?"

Borsalino smiled, still chuckling. "Just a moron who thought he was far greater than he ever was… so I made him more beautiful in death than he could ever dream of being in life."


	9. A Crocodilian Grin

**A Crocodilian Grin**

Vivi managed to convince Sakazuki to help her stop the civil war (for a sizeable reward). She wasn't aware that he already intended to kill Crocodile because he had arbitrarily decided to kill all the Warlords or that Borsalino was the one who killed Igaram when he blew up Whisky Peak.

On their way they passed through a large bank of fog and discovered a strange man dressed like a ballerina on their ship. At first Sakazuki merely smiled while he watched the more idiotic members of his crew dance with the crossdresser. When he started stealing faces, the smile disappeared. When the man jumped on board his own ship and was addressed as Mr. 2, lava flew; and the sailed away from the burning wreckage of the flamboyant man's equally flamboyant ship.

When they arrived at Alabasta Sakazuki assigned Kuzan to protecting and supporting the princess in her little crusade to stop the rebellion while he headed off to Rainbase(where VIvi informed him Crocodile resided) to murder the fuck out of a Warlord.

Six hours of languid Shaving later, he arrived at the gates of Rainbase, already guessing that Crocodile was in the giant casino with a fucking _solid gold crocodile_ on top even without using Observation. He slowly meandered towards him, Smirking when he realised the Warlord didn't even have awakened Haki. He began to wonder how he even became a Warlord, but decided the World Government's incompetence in selecting mercenaries was not his problem.

He kicked open the gaudily decorated doors and strode right to the VIP rooms, where he sensed Crocodile was directly below. Hw strolled through the doors, ignoring the stammering guards and officials trying to stop him and walked down the path labeled "pirates".

He crossed his arms as the ground fell out beneath him. His knees didn't even bend when he hit the ground. Crocodile was smirking at him, secure in the false certainty of his victory. "Heh, seems you found yourself in a bit of trouble there, eh?"

Sakazuki nearly groaned, rapidly growing bored of the narcissistic monologuing of the arrogant prick. He raised his hand, placing it an inch in front of the Seastone bars, turned it to magma, and began to crank up the heat. Crocodile raised an eyebrow, not seeing the point of the action until, to his horror, the bars began to sag. "Seastone has a high melting temperature, but it still has one. I can easily generate heats greatly in excess of this temperature. The only reason I can't generate molten Seastone like I can similar materials is its unique properties causing it to cancel out Devil Fruit powers on contact." He stepped over the slowly growing puddle of molten Seastone, and walked to the nearly catatonic form of the revolutionary Warlord. "But, as you can see, I didn't need to _touch_ it at all to _melt_ it."

Crocodile managed to snap himself out of his shock, sliding the golden cover off of his poisoned hook. He glanced about him and smirked, sending swirling spears of sand into the glass walls and ceiling before sprinting away, mocking Nico Robin (who he just betrayed) and Sakazuki over his shoulder as he disintegrated the stairs behind him. Sakazuki scowled at him as the water came crashing down around him, his glowing eyes piercing into Crocodile's and causing him to stumble before a curtain of water separated them.

Crocodile kept running until he was halfway to Alubarna, gasping for breath with his hand(and hook) on his knees. His desperate struggle for breath turned into triumphant laughter in celebration of his victory… or more accurately, his survival. His laughter was interrupted by a sarcastically polite "Ahem." His head shot towards the source of the noise so fast he nearly snapped his neck. To his shocked horror, there stood Sakazuki and Robin, looking no worse for wear.

"If you're done jacking off, I'd like to get the part where I rip your spine out of your ass." Akainu commented, arms crossed and a malign smirk on his face.

"You- what- how- HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU ALIVE! I FUCKING DROWNED THE BOTH OF YOU IN HUNDREDS OF TONS OF WATER!" He was (Though he would never admit it) terrified to see the stranger he thought dead standing before him, completely unharmed.

Sakazuki raised an eyebrow, "You do know water evaporates when exposed to high enough temperatures, right? Devil Fruits are only canceled out when the majority of your body is submerged. I didn't even get wet." He didn't wait for a response, shaving to right beside Crocodile with his foot drawn back for a kick. His leg slammed into the warlords throat like a steel bar and tossed him several yards away before he rolled to a stop, desperately gasping for breath.

The Warlord franticly tried to get up, to do _anything_ , before a obsidian leg slammed down on his chest. He glared up at the smirking bastards who thought him defeated, thrusting his hand out to grab him.

The sandy hand clasped around Sakazuki's leg and for a moment Crocodile felt triumphant. This feeling swiftly faded as instead of withered flesh rising up his opponent's leg, _Glass_ was spreading up _his_ arm. He tried to release his grasp, only o find he couldn't. He tried to turn to sand, but where evert the spreading glass touched could not turn and he was rendered just slightly less imobile than before. Finally a grim look spread across his face as he reared back the golden hook (cover reattached) and amputated his arm just above the elbow.

Sakazuki smirked as his target swirled away to reappear some distance away; some mixture of pride and an irrational need for vengeance keeping him from fleeing... for a time. Crocodile growled and split the sands beneath his now hated enemies feet. Said enemy stepped a side and threw a seemingly pointless kick in the process. Crocodile, even as near blinded by rage as he was, raised an eyebrow at the apparent dramatics, he decided to mock him before a dull thunk caught his attention. Lying in the sand before him was a familiar object, shiny and gold. He frowned at the strange crimson-leaking object dumbly for a moment, trying to puzzle out what, exactly, it was as blood loss clouded his mind more and more. Just before the darkness consumed him completely, he figured it out, "That's… my hook? {Thunk}" he collapsed backwards into the unforgiving sand.

Robin (who had always considered herself a calm, rational person) was starring in naked shock at the scene before her. A strange man had come out of nowhere, scared Crocodile into fleeing and betraying her earlier than she had suspected. He had proceeded to effortlessly escape the trap, deciding for reasons unknown to her bring her along, and hunted down the fleeing Warlord. When the two met up she had expected it to go like every battle against the man had gone, very _very_ poorly for the challenger. Instead, he had slaughtered Crocodile with consummate ease, tossing him around like a ragdoll. Crocodile hadn't even had the opportunity to utilize his poison (and she had the distinct feeling it would not have helped in the slightest) before he was bleeding out into the sand he once praised so highly.

Sakazuki walked over to the dying man, scooping up his hook to keep as a trophy as he went. He stood over him, watching the sluggish rise and fall of his chest. He grunted lifting his leg high to finish the man. His flaming, obsidian foot sunk over two feet into the suddenly vacated sand. "Huh, honestly didn't see that coming. The idea that a man made of sand could quickly escape in the _fucking desert,_ never occurred to me _._ " He pulled his leg out of the shifting sands, walking over to the shell shocked Nico Robin. He placed a hand on her shoulder, gaining her attention. "Well, let's see how that whole "stop the rebellion before it begins" thing is going, eh?" so saying, he Shaved away.

"Evidently, not well." Robin stated dryly,watching the civil war raging in the streets. Sakazuki merely grunted, sensing his crew attempting to scale a clocktower under heavy sniper fire. He frowned, aiming a meteor fist at the opened face of the tower. The crew watched as the tower head exploded, though with a much smaller bang than they had expected. The massive bomb's internal workings had been melted before it could detonate, causing it to be a useless hunk of metal. Crocodile had chosen (perhaps quite stupidly) a highly stable explosive for his bomb, not wanting his careful planning to go to waste because the fucker had detonated before he was ready. Crocodile himself appeared on top of the capitol building, somehow having crudely bandaged his arms. Sakazuki vanished from his position before the Warlord could initiate whatever batshit nonsense suddenly made sense to his addled mind. He reappeared behind the crazily smiling man who had already began to rave about his victory, evidently not noticing how the battling factions had slowed in their fighting to listen to the much more audible and visible form of an insane National Hero.

He was in the middle of explaining _exactly_ what he intended to do to this nation (having already gone over what he had already done in _excruciating_ detail (sakazuki decided to let the megalomaniacal moron rant just to see what would happen… and sway public opinion to his side)) when a glowing fist pierced his stomach from behind. Sakazuki blasted a enough magma to liquify his organs a dozen times over into the man before letting him drop to the distant stone below. His cloak billowed about behind him as the eyes of the nation shifted from the flaming hole in the dead Warlord to the strange Hero who had saved them. Sakazuki smirked, locking eyes with the relieved Princess, who shuddered. He was definitely _not_ a hero.


	10. The Mocking Town And The Angel Of Death

**The Mocking Town And The Angel Of Death**

The sheer value of the jewels, weapons, food, and the last minute addition of reading their poneglyph was enough to bankrupt a smaller country. When Sakazuki informed his crew Nami literally fell to her knees before collapsing completely, unconscious body shuddering with pleasure. She had managed to, in between bouts of orgasmic ecstasy, ask why he hadn't requested any gold or precious metals. His response was to create a basketball sized orb of molten gold in his hand, letting it cool before rolling it to her. She hadn't stopped twitching and moaning in three days.

The kingdom celebrated for several days, feasting a dancing long after exhaustion had made many simply collapse. Those who had passed out awoke to an ongoing party; which they rejoined.

Before the party had fully ground to a halt, the Red-Dogs gave their goodbyes (tearful on the case of Usopp, Chopper, and Vivi) and vanished into the night, following the call of the Log-Pose they had "borrowed" from Logue Town before its annihilation.

After a series of minor, explosion filled detours (involving leaving a goat herding loan shark and a red haired extortionist in many, many pieces, Nami freaking out over the Log Pose pointing straight up, and a galleon nearly falling on them), they arrived at a lawless pirate town emitting the sounds of brutal murder and gruff revelry. Screams of various kinds echoed into the night, and not a single resident so much as blinked. Sakazuki gave a malevolent grin, telling the crew to gather supplies. Usopp and Galdino set out for junk, gun, scrap, and (at Galdino's insistence) art supply stores. Galdino's abilities had been examined further on the trip and they found that his wick variant of the string-string could barely come anywhere near the level of the genuine article; the speed, fine control, and cutting power simply wasn't here. Nami, Sanji, and Chopper had set out to find medical supplies and food. Borsalino and Kuzan we're on guard duty with Nico Robin (Who several members of the crew were still trying to figure out why Sakazuki let her stay). Sakazuki himself and Zoro set off to… basically just fuck about; though they had the same overarching goal of finding how to get to the sky island as all the others. The three brothers could quite literally just carry the ship into the skies if they had to, but wanted to see if their was a traditional or established way of doing it first.

Before long they found themselves in some shithole bar (rather fitting considering the whole island could be described as such). They settled down at the bar,, ordering drinks and asking questions. When they got tired of subtly and out right asked about the sky island, silence fell over the bar; only the din of sound going on outside informed them the world hadn't ended.

A laugh coming from a man drinking at a nearby table drew their attention. "Haahh~, hahaha! I hate wide eyed dreamers like you!" the blonde man who spoke had gotten to his feet and was approaching them with a scowl on his face. "The age of dreams is over!" he cried throwing a punch towards Sakazuki's face. His fist stopped inches from the magma man's face; though the look on his face showed it was not by his own will. This was made self evident when his arm suddenly twisted and fell apart in an explosive shower of blood.

Bellamy fell back with a pained cry of horror before stiffening. He sent a horrified look at Sakazuki as his remaining limbs mimicked his attempted punch. After his limbs were diced he did not fall; instead his torso twisted in two different directions, causing his lower body to fall to the ground in pieces and his upper body to remain suspended in the air.

A figure walked out of the shadows of the bar, monocle catching the light to appear opaque. He was a young man, dressed primarily in shades of black. His dark hair was kept back in a short, slightly spiked ponytail. His hands, clad in fingerless gloves, were clasped behind his back as he walked forward, an unlit cigarette in his mouth. "Hmph, the age of dreams, over? Ha. What idiocy." he walked past the swiftly exsanguinating suspended form of Bellamy the Hyena. Even Sakazuki's powerful eyes could barely see what the man had done, though he doubted Borsalino would have any trouble. "I've heard you're killing Warlords. Any chance that includes this..." he glanced disdainfully at the more than half dead man. "...man's boss; one Donquixote Doflamingo."

Sakazuki nodded slowly, never breaking eye contact. "Yes, I fully intend to kill him as well. Why?"

The man smirked faintly, "I have a vested interest in seeing him die." he raised his hands, causing the wires attached to his gloves to catch the light and seem to give of a faint blue shine, revealing what Sakazuki knew to the rest of the people who hadn't already noticed it; Bellamy was wrapped and slowly being cut apart by said wires holding him in the air. "I want his fruit. Not for what it is, but what it _could be._ My father taught me many things; one of them is that slight modifications to Devil Fruits are possible. His strings are a word away from being perfect." he slashed his hand to the side, and Bellamy's head exploded. "My name is Walter C. Dornez and I wish to join your crew, Warlord Killer."

Sakazuki raised an eyebrow, "Oh? Interesting." he paused, looking the man over. After a moment he apparently found what he was looking for, "All right then." he stood, gesturing for Walter and Zoro to follow him.

* * *

Sanji was carrying the bags of food and meds not strapped to Chopper's fully quadrupedal form. He was in the midst of ineffectively complementing Nami, when a kukri bigger than his arm slammed into the wall near his head. He glanced at it, following its rather sword-like length back to its wielder; who he proceeded to kick in the gut. The blow knocked the snarl off his face. "Shitty Big Knife, attacking strangers." he proceeded to lift his leg and slam it down onto the back of the bent over man's head, crushing it into paste on the cobble stone road. He walked away. lighting a cigarette and complaining to his companions about random idiots attacking them as they headed back to the ship.

* * *

Usopp and Galdino arrived at the Merry without incident and were nearly cut to pieces before Sakazuki assured Walter that, yes, despite him not having heard of them, they were part of the crew. Both members started crying over their "disrespect" at the hands of, apparently, the World Government.

Sanji walked up, ignoring the bawling idiots, and had apparently stopped complaining about attacks by strangers and moved on to the trouble he would have washing the idiots brains out of his pants. Chopper "helpfully" informed him that if he hadn't crushed his skull like that he wouldn't have bled so much.

While the whole crew came to the conclusion that they had learned approximately jack shit about how to actually get to the sky island, Robin strolled back into the ship (having gotten bored and decided to go buy some books while she was there) just before they decided to simply have the brothers carry (or, in Sakazuki's case, more likely _throw_ ) the ship into the sky. "There's a knock-up stream straight west from here."

They all turned to look at her (save Walter, who had decided to keep watch) with strange expressions on their faces. "Ooh, and it has the power and _stability_ to get us up there, ne?" Borsalino quirked an eyebrow.

She nods, "Yes. Though it could just as easily destroy the ship completely if we don't hit it perfectly."

The crew shared a look, "How bout no. We're just gonna fly the ship up." Kuzan nodded, jumping off the ship and landing on a platform of ice; his brothers following soon after. Whilst any one of them could carry the ship by themselves, it would go faster (and be less likely to fall back into the sea if one dropped it) if they all did it. Walter rapidly put away the sails and stored loose objects inside, not moving from his position at the railing; one hand manipulating the wires, the other not releasing its death grip on the rail.

The brothers grinned at each other, picking up the ship with no visible strain. They leapt up, kicking the air to propel themselves upwards. "HAHAHAHAHA, sky island here we come." Soon they broke through the cloud layer, making sure not to actually enter the white sea(by moving to the edge of the Cumuloregalis) and found themselves in the land of God.


	11. God?

**God?**

The brothers moved further over the white sea (not wanting the ship to plummet back over the edge) and set the ship down before reboarding it, wide smiles on their faces as they, along with

the crew, looked at the beautiful fluffy sea around them. Sanji was rapturous as he asked reverently, "Is this heaven?"

Usopp was suddenly nervous, "H-heaven? Wouldn't that mean we're… D-dead?"

Borsalino gave a mischievous grin, "Oh definitely, though I doubt any of us would be going to any sorta heaven! Perhaps this is hell in disguise?"

Sakazuki sighed as Usopp fell to the ground in near catatonia. He turned to his laughing brother with a _look_ , before turning to look at the strange structure up ahead. It was a large tunnel, seemingly made of a strange white stone and gold; it had the words "Heaven's Gate" engraved upon it. Usopp got his wits about him… just in time to see the gates and crash again.

As they crossed under, a short old lady came out of a door in the side. She immediately asked if they were here for raiding, warmongering, or peaceful exploring. Sakazuki answered with a magma bullet to the head. Seconds later a giant lobster latched onto their ship and rocketed up the edge of the cloudfall.

Soon they crested the top, entering what they didn't know was called the White White Sea. To them it seemed even more heavenly than the white sea (though that may have just been the power of suggestion considering the name of the gate they took to get there).

They leisurely sailed about, having no real destination in mind. After a short time they found themselves dropping anchor at the edge of the beach. Sakazuki's head suddenly shot over to seemingly stare at nothing. "We are being Observed." he declared.

The sky rumbled, and a bolt of lightning bigger than the ship formed above them, rocketing towards them. Sakazuki leapt into the air, left hand raised above him and right aimed off to the side. The lightning struck… and was sent hurtling away. Sakazuki had created a trail through his body of liquid iron and redirected the blast far away from them in a strangely more concentrated beam. For a long moment he was suspended in the air, billions of volts flowing through him; before he fell back to the deck, a sneer on his face. He turned to Borsalino, "Go deal with that. We'll take the longer route and mop up his subordinates before we join you." Borsalino nodded, vanishing in a flash of light.

He reappeared in front of a strange sight; before him, smirking lazily (though with clear panic in his half lidded eyes) was a man of average height and utterly unusual ears. His ear lobes hung nearly three feet from his head, large golden earrings dangling from them. Borsalino didn't bother with banter, putting a hole in the man's head before he even fully registered his presence. His head snapped back, before coming forward, a scowl on his face. He had turned to lightning before the beam struck. "You dare to strike against God?"

"Ooh, you're made of lightning, ne?" Borsalino's smile turned dark as haki coated his hand, utterly ignoring the man's words. He dodged the blast of lightning sent at him, reaching out to grab it with his Haki coated hand.

Kizaru easily grasped the back of the man's neck as he foolishly attempted to use his whole body to attack in his indignant rage over being ignored. A Haki coated beam of light appeared in Borsalino's hand before he plunged it into the man's back, piercing his heart. Malice filled his grin as he dragged his blade down, nearly bisecting the arrogant man.

Blood flowed from the massive wound and dribbled from his mouth. Kizaru dropped him on his face, walking around and crouching down to look the man in his swiftly dulling eyes, "God, eh? Heh, I fit the bill better than you ever could." He slowly turned to light, the last thing the 'god' saw before the light left his eyes forever was his killers mocking grin fading into light. "Heh, dying face down in the dirt; some god, ne?"

He stood up, his grin fading as he grabbed the man's earlobes, partially lifting him, and swiped his blade, severing the false God's head. He vanished in a flash of light, reappearing next to his younger brother and tossing the decollated skull to him.

Sakazuki swiped it out of the air, raising an eyebrow and looking to his brother who smirked. "He called himself "God" **(AN:he actually used air quotes as he said this),** I figured we could either extremely demoralise or inspire everyone up here."

Akainu looked down at the still bleeding head resting in his palm, "Hmph, their god's head, impaled on a stake in the town square." His ever present scowl curled up at the edge, "How amusing."

They reached the shore, made of clouds that felt strangely like overly soft dirt, and disembarked. Everyone splashed around in the watery clouds, even some of the more stoic members of the crew (though Walter quickly put away the sails and dropped anchor, Sakazuki throwing it onto the beach to be sure it didn't pierce the bottom of the clouds). A distant noise drew everyone's attention; someone was playing a harp and singing. And wasn't that just far to fitting for the environment?

The crew slowly moved towards the noise, eventually spotting what appeared to be an angle on a rock. While the more gullible members of the crew (and Sanji) gaped at her, Sakazuki's scowl only deepened. He turned to Kuzan, "Why would such useless wings even develop? They're obviously to small to be actually useful for gliding, let alone flight."

Kuzan gave a lazy shrug, "Aesthetic evolution?"

Borsalino burst out laughing at the idea, "Everyone assumes there would be angels up here, so they evolved to look like them? Honestly, I just think it's hilarious; we should throw a couple off a cliff to see if they fall slower than normal people." His sarcastic grin didn't give away whether he was joking or not. Sakazuki didn't care.

"What could we possibly gain by knowing that? It seem like completely useless knowledge." His scowl looked slightly contemplative.

While the brothers were discussing the pointless wings on the sky islander, said islander had greeted the crew and was being drowned in questions. Sakazuki strode up to the overwhelmed angel, the head of "God" swinging by his ears from his hand. His crew moved to let him approach, the blonde sighed in relief at the cessation of questions… until he lifted the still dripping head.

Fear filled her eyes, for in her mind the idea of Eneru being struck down simply wasn't possible. She saw the head and assumed it was fake; not questioning how they even knew what Eneru looked like. "Y-you shouldn't have made that! If He finds out He'll smite you!"

A malicious smirk spread across Sakazuki's face, "Would this "smiting" involve lightning, perchance?" He smirk grew as she slowly nodded. "Your "God"," Here he shook the severed head, "Is already dealt with. He made the foolish mistake of attacking _my fucking crew!_ I showed him the error of his ways."

Her mind seemed to shut down as the reality of the situation dawned on her; body stiffening and crashing into the "Sand" beneath her. The Red-Dogs watched her fall; bemused.

She came to a short while later to the sight of her father nervously talking with the pirates. Most of them had gone back to playing in the waves; but five of them were crowded around her father, interrogating him. The three tallest, the swordsman, and the monocled youth had remained on shore. Those playing in the water stayed firmly in the shallows, seeming to avoid having any significant portion of their body submerged. "Father!" she called out, drawing everyone's attention to her; much to her embarrassment… and fear. The monocled man, whispered quietly to the red suited man, his fingers twitching slightly. A glint of light drew her eyes but whatever it was was gone before she could catch sight of it.

Walter frowned at the girl, subtly surrounding her and the man who had introduced himself as her father with his wires. He whispered to his captain, "Should I kill them, sir?" He twitched his fingers, causing said wires to briefly catch the light. His frown deepened when the girl, Conis, briefly noticed his… precaution.

Sakazuki glanced at the shorter man and shook his head, "No point… yet." He paused for a moment, a strange look coming over his face. "In fact… I think I might take a play out of ol' Whitebeard's book. If anyone attacks… kill them and some other random people amongst the townsfolk; I imagine there'll be some hostility to my announcement." Walter nodded in acknowledgement but did not remove his wires from their position.

Sakazuki cleared his throat, drawing Conis's father's attention, "I have an announcement that the populous must hear." The heavily bearded man nodded nervously, his hidden eyes alight with fear as he guided them towards the town.

* * *

 **Back In The East Blue: Three Brothers Island**

* * *

A ragged ship, barely held together by the shear hate of its sole occupant slowly pulled up to the island of steel. A man, coated almost entirely with slowly scarring burns, stared at this monument to senseless slaughter with his single eye. Said eye seemed to glow from the burning hatred and rage that consumed its owner. The figure glared at the emblazoned flag so intensely he nearly missed the two figures that stood next to it.

One was a tall man, so thin as to appear emaciated and so pale as to seem deathly ill; though he carried himself with a refined grace more oft seen in nobility or their more visible servants and wore a fine white suit and a red tie. His pupil was as white as his suit and his iris as red as his tie. The other was a man covered in patchwork clothing of black and white, a maniacal smile spread across his face; though it appeared he may have been smiling like that because he simply couldn't close his lips over his teeth. His eyes were solid black and seemed to shift and change constantly.

The smiler spoke up, "You wouldn't happen to be able to spare a place on yer ship, eh cap'in? We had a nasty run in with pack of _Red Dogs_."

The burned man's disinterested look vanished, his single eye locking on the patchwork man. "Red Dogs?" The metal cannon ball that had become grafted by shear heat over his left hand slammed into the railing of his ship, the horrible scarred and sporadically metal covered appendage easily breaking through the already wrecked wood. "I would do anything to get back at them. My ship will always have a place for those who hold hatred for those bastards."

Patches inhuman grin seemed to grow impossibly larger, " _Anything_ , you say?"


	12. The Heavens Burn

**The Heavens Burn**

Sakazuki was right; there most certainly was hostility to his announcement of ownership of the island. He impaled "God"'s head on a helpfully provided spike of ice, wrapped it (and the spike) in gold, and replaced its eyes with crystallized light, also placing a large crystal (of light) in his mouth. **(AN: Crystallized light actually is (kind of) a thing)** He proceeded to claim the island as part of his territory and thusly under his protection.

Immediately after his proclamation a zig-zagging spear of cloud shot towards him from behind. He whirled around with terrifying and unexpected speed for a man his size, grabbing the spear in mid air. The Iron cloud began to melt in his hand before he wrenched back on it; dragging it and its wielder towards him.

The sunglasses clad man let go of his spear in a desperate attempt to escape; unfortunately for him, he was a few seconds too late and a gigantic, black gloved hand clamped around his head. Sakazuki jerked the usurper's head back with a sickening crack and then, just to be extra thorough, crushed his head in his hand.

As Akainu shook the blood, brain matter, and shards of bone off his hand Kuzan lazily fired a spike of ice in a seemingly random direction; causing a disturbingly rotund man to fall from behind a cloud, flailing his comically undersized limbs in a futile attempt to save himself. His fall was interrupted milliseconds before he hit the ground by multiple spikes of ice shooting up from the ground; impaling him in many places.

Sakazuki finally gave up on shaking the offal from his hand and simply burned it off; turning to fire a blast of magma at a lance wielding man mounted on a giant purple bird. The mustachioed man showed an unusual degree of agility and speed, managing to dodge the blast and Galdino's follow up. Unfortunately for him his vision at speed was not nearly good enough to see the dozens of wires before him; his speed worked against him and he diced himself on the near invisible net.

Sakazuki gave Walter an approving nod before turning to watch the last priest die. Apparently this one was capable flight; clouds shooting out of his boots and propelling him around. A large bullet to the knee solved that little problem and a sword to his falling waste ended the fight. Zoro flicked the blood from his sword before sheathing it whilst Usopp grinned. Walter sneered at the corpses, muttering about trash and adjusting his monocle While Galdino went back creating little figurines; often handing them to villagers at seemingly random.

Apparently their little demonstration had quelled any thoughts of rebellion in the islanders; seeing their feared oppressors so easily slain had an odd effect on them. The looks on their faces raged from horror to elation and everything in between; some even had a strange combination of the two. A few looked grimly satisfied to see their oppressors so violently ended.

Eventually the townsfolk settled on hesitantly happy; this soon turned to elation and a grand party started up in celebration. Sakazuki allowed the revelry to go on for a while before laying down some rules for his newly conquered nation. Three days of wild revelry later the Red Dogs were about ready to head out… until screams broke out.

The Red Dogs rushed to the source; slowly walking into the town were two blood stained and ragged looking figures. Both were tall men, though one was more than a head taller than the other. The taller of the two was an oddly proportioned man with blue hair and a metal nose wearing a tattered hawaiian shirt and undamaged speedo; the many wounds over his body revealed him to be a robot or cyborg of some sort. He was half carrying the other man, though said man appeared to be less injured than the bluenette. He had a grim look on his face as he glanced about the town

The shorter of the two was wearing a suit that had clearly seen better days; torn in many places and splattered with blood. He was missing a shoe and his top hat was little more than a frame, the majority having been torn to shreds. He had a forlorn expression on his face as he stared at a dead pigeon he cradled in his arms; tears leaking from his eye seemingly unnoticed by the man himself.

The two were immediately given medical attention; though the cyborg shrugged it off, seemingly in a hurry to find someone. He looked around frantically, "Come on, who's in charge here!" he shouted.

Sakazuki shaved behind him and cleared his throat. The man whirled, fist swinging before he saw who it was. Sakazuki easily caught the shorter man's fist; though he was mildly surprised by the strength behind it. He considered crushing (or melting) the man's fist but decided to introduce himself first. "I am in charge here, Captain Monkey D. Sakazuki. What exactly is the problem… and how did you and your friend come to be in such a state?" Akainu noticed the wires floating around the newcomers and mentally congratulated Walter for his caution.

The man gave a bitter laugh, "Ha, were not friends; the apocalypse causes other problems to seem significantly less important. Speaking of which; you need to fortify this place as fast as you can, though I doubt it will matter. I estimate we have three days before they get here."

Sakazuki quirked an eyebrow, "Oh, who is "they"?" The look the man gave in return unnerved even him. It was a look of such hate and fear, such anguish and misery it seemed to pierce his soul.

"Who are _they_? HmhmahahahahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! UHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! {Cough Cough} ... Sorry. They came from the Florian Triangle. The first sign was a seemingly benign fog that rolled in… People began to fall ill soon after. The sickness proceeded quickly; Coughing and sneezing led to shakes and fever led to vomiting and death… it was so fast."

" _Hey Zambai, don't worry! Just give it a little time and you'll be back to your SUPER healthy self!" Franky smiled down at his longtime friend; hiding his fear behind a confident facadé._

 _Zambai gave a weak smile "You {cough} sure Boss?"_

 _Franky's fake smile grew, "Hell yeah! A few SUPER hours of rest and you'll be right as rain!"_

 _Zambai's shaky smile was swept away in a torrent of vomit. Vomit that Franky noticed with some trepidation was just a little too red to be the soup they fed him earlier. When the vomiting subsided Zambai wasn't moving_

"But they didn't _stay_ dead; they woke up. But they weren't themselves anymore, they attacked anyone who wasn't one of them on sight. Families tore themselves to shreds, friends devoured friends.

 _Franky desperately shook his friend's body, "Come on man, wake up! Jokes over! C'mon man this isn't funny!"_

 _A few moments later Zambai's eyes shot open; milky and bloodshot they immediately locked on the only other life form in the room._

 _Franky gave him a watery smile, before wiping the tears from his eyes. "Uhaha! You had me going there for a moment! That was a SUPER cruel joke." Zambai didn't respond and had Franky any flesh left he would have felt a cold sweat go down his neck._

"Few survived this stage; most didn't understand what was happening until it was too late and fewer still could bring themselves to mutilate their loved ones…"

 _Zambai launched himself out of the bed with a snarl, jaw snapping shut on Franky's neck… and teeth shattering on his metal hide. Franky instinctively threw him across the room; his body slamming into the wall next to the door with a sickening crack._

 _The noise drew Kiwi from her sister's bed. Before she could say anything a shadow appeared behind her. Franky shouted but was too late, Sickly pale hands clasped around her with strength their owner had never had before, drawing her into her sister's arms… and teeth. Her screams were cut off when Zambai leapt up from the broken pile he laid in and tore out her throat._

 _Franky jumped across the room, fist cocked back. The feel of his friends' bodies breaking beneath his iron hands nearly broke him. He held Kiwi's quickly exsanguinating body in his arms, crying as her eyes slowly drifted closed._

 _His tears came even harder when her eye opened once more; milky and bloodshot._

"Turns out those who died from the sickness were the lucky ones, being torn apart and eaten alive was not a good end… I saw far too many survivors meet their end like that; many because they hesitated to butcher their friends."

 _Franky rushed through the streets, trying to find any survivors; the blood of everyone he loved splattered across his body. All he found was more death; people he had known (at least in passing) for years torn apart by the corpses of those they loved. For so long he ran, subconsciously heading towards Galley-LA; hoping to find them alive._

 _When he arrived he was met with disappointment; everyone he cared about was dead. Only Rob Lucci (having strangely donned a black suit and top hat) was still alive; and even that may not have been true had Franky not shown up when he did._

"What few people did survive were either ruthless killers or just lucky. Lucci was not the later."

 _Lucci had never feared for his life as much as he did in that moment. When the sickness swept through he had been mildly concerned, but neither he (nor Hattori) were ever infected and thus he thought little of it (he couldn't care less if the rest of CP-9 died). He had pretended to be concerned; when the dead rose he no longer had to pretend. He had always been leagues ahead of the rest of his teammates, so he figured putting them back in the ground would be easy; it wasn't._

 _What Franky had failed to notice killing mostly civilians (he killed his friends before they had time to demonstrate it) was that the undead's overall strength and speed had increased roughly 400%. Franky had mostly been fighting civilians and the difference simply hadn't been enough for him to notice. Lucci was fighting trained killers; their minds were gone but whatever was piloting their bodies retained a vestige of their skills. Lucci was better, perhaps even enough to make up the difference… one on one that is. Against all three of his (former) comrades and the legitimate members of Galley-La that could shrug off debilitating damage? That was stretching it._

 _He wasn't alone at first, Paullie fought with him for a while. The man was surprisingly competent with those ropes of his; unfortunately Iceburg was simply better. The red stripe suited man rushed Paullie, bits of his beloved pet mouse hanging from his slavering jaw. Paullie whipped a knotted rope at the man with an impressive lack of hesitancy (he would have made a decent CP-9 agent, Lucci had thought) But it proved to be a mistake. Having a weapon you can't abandon showed its inherent weakness when Iceburg snagged the rope out of the air before it hit him and used it to pull Paullie towards him. Paullie's scream was cut off when Iceburg's teeth closed around his throat._

 _Lucci took the opportunity to kill Iceburg, crushing his skull between his hands and rending his limbs; he had learned that only causing catastrophic damage would keep them down. Franky's basic fighting style usually resulted in sufficient damage via crushing force._

 _Unfortunately Paullie woke up while Lucci was killing Iceburg and Kalifa took the opportunity to lunge for his back. It was at this point Franky entered, smashing open the door. He didn't hesitate, launching a rocket fist into Kalifa just before her teeth sank into the back of Lucci's neck. Her head exploded in a shower of blood, brain and bone; her body was sent flying across the room, where it crunched into a wall, splattering blood all over it._

 _Lucci repeated Iceburg's performance and grabbed Paullie's rope weapon, pulling him towards him and tearing him limb from while Franky reattached his hand. The two men acknowledge each other as Kalifa's body began to twitch and jerkily rise. Lucci turned and fired a modified (desperation was the father of invention after all) version of finger pistol using his palm into Kaku's chest, causing an effect similar to a cannon blast. Kaku's innards were blown out his back by the technique; though Kaku seemed mostly unbothered and continued his assault on his former leader._

 _Franky's gigantic hand clasp around Blueno head, ignoring his attempts to bite his palm; though the numerous finger pistols to his torso hastened him along in crushing his skull. He proceeded to tear the undead assassin in half and crush the pieces. The other employees of Galley-La jumped onto his back while he was distracted; nails and teeth attempting to damage him to little success. He scrambled to grab them from their place on his back, regretting he had not given his arms the ability to rotate 360° when one managed to get its hand in one of his wounds and use its enhanced strength to rip it open further. He slammed his back into the wall repeatedly as the zombie began to mess with his internals; the creature was crushed into a lumpy mess, it's partially gelified innards leaking out of the ragged holes carved by its shattered bones. He grabbed the two on his shoulders and smashed them together repeatedly until they joined their gooey companion in the grave._

 _Lucci ducked under a swipe from Kaku and grabbed the arm as it passed over him. He pulled his former compatriot towards him and drove his fist into his head, using yet another modified version of finger pistol to blow it apart before grabbing his shoulder and ripping off the arm he held. He tossed the severed appendage aside as Kaku shakily tried to stand up and rushed forward. Grabbing both of the angular man's ankles, he tore him in half with grunt of exertion._

 _He he tossed one piece aside before whirling and smacking Kalifa's lunging form away with the other. She flew across the room… right into Franky's waiting arms. He placed one hand on the ragged remains of her head and the other grabbed her feet. With a grim look he compressed her body, crushing her organs and bones into pulp that poured out of the many wounds that opened up as he brought his hands together._

"Then they came. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of ragged ships appeared on the horizon. Each filled with dozens of undead atrocities. They poured out into the streets, killing most of the remaining survivors in seconds."

 _The two survivors started looking for a functional ship; a task that proved to be harder than expected considering they were in shipbuilding and repair dock. Most of the ships in there were either too damaged or simply not finished. While both men were skilled shipwrights (Franky more than Lucci); hordes of the undead pounding on the walls tends to be quite the opposite of a conducive environment._

 _While Franky searched for a ship they could quickly finish, Lucci raided a desk. He pulled an unopened packet of cigarettes from one of the employees whose name he never bothered learning. It had been a very long time since he kicked the habit, but fuck it; The apocalypse is a little more pressing a problem than addiction._

 _He walked to the indoor dock, old instincts telling him to smoke outdoors. Reaching the massive ship entrance to the, he pulled out the little black stick; placing the golden filter in his mouth and flicking open his engraved lighter. He took a deep drag, his eyes closing at the familiar flavour._

 _What met his eyes when they opened had the cigarette falling from his mouth; hundreds, nay, thousands of ships were appearing out of the fog. Ragged and rotted they slowly drifted towards the ravaged island; his sharp eyes could see the faint silhouettes of the crew of one of the nearer ships. Their oddly proportioned bodies moved in a jerky and unnatural way; he knew immediately these were not the government quarantine he had called for… though some of those ships looked distressingly familiar; a ragged marine flag flapping languidly in the pestilent wind._

 _He darted away, heading towards where he could hear Franky working (having apparently found a good enough ship); he was in such a rush he failed to notice his cigarette lighting the wooden building (soaked with decades of oil and other flammable substances) aflame._

 _Lucci reached Franky just as he was about to call out to him again. He had found a moderately sized ship, something that the two of them could pilot with little trouble. It had only required a small amount of repair and it was good to go._

 _Franky turned to Lucci, a question on his metal lips before he saw the harried look on the stoic man's face."We need to go, now! There are thousands of ships full of zombies pulling in. If we're lucky their cannons will either be non-functional or…" {Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom} Cannon blasts and corresponding explosions resounded around the city, cutting Lucci's wishful thinking off._

 _Franky smiled grimly, "Well, there goes that plan." He glanced at the ship before looking at Lucci; his eyes briefly looking at the red stained pigeon on his shoulder before switching to the shorter man's eyes. He stood up from his place crouched over the small ship and gave Lucci a dubious look, "You got anything that can stop cannonballs?"_

 _Lucci gave a smirk he didn't feel while driving his fist through the wall, punching a neat hole through it. He withdrew his undamaged hand from the wall, and quirked an eyebrow. The hole in the wall was faintly smoking; which Franky at first thought was a result of the sharp dressed man's shear speed… until flames burst through it._

 _Lucci knew very well that his punches were not fast enough to set things on fire, so he was unsurprised when he whirled around and witnessed a wall of fire rapidly spreading across the ship bay. "Shit, shit, shit! Well, fuck planning; we need to GO!" So saying he jumped into the boat, swiftly followed by a slightly more frantic Franky. Lucci freed the ship from it's mooring with a swift tempest kick and they were off._

"We barely made it out alive; Honestly, I'm surprised we did. Sometimes I wonder if it would have been better to have just let those fires take me; join everything I loved in the ashes."

 _The two men set off, racing against the rapidly spreading flames swiftly consuming Galley-La building… and spreading to the surrounding buildings. A burning beam nearly crushed their small ship as they fled; the building was falling apart._

 _Their boat barely cleared the exit before the building collapsed in on itself; the burning husk no longer capable of supporting itself. Franky watched it burn, mechanical eyes unable to shed the tears of his sorrow as he watched the island that had been his home burn. Lucci didn't understand the man's sorrow; how could he? Having been "raised" as he was. No location held any true value to the assassin; only two things did he care about: Hattori and his own life. One of those didn't belong to him and both could be taken at any moment._

 _He frowned as the numerous ragged ships let them sail past unmolested; something was wrong. "Why aren't they attacking?" he whispered to Franky, not truly expecting an answer._

 _Franky didn't even glance at the man, his eyes still locked on the burning ruin of his home. "They plan to track us, most likely."_

 _Lucci frowned at his response, watching a cruise ship be shot and boarded. 'Why only us though? Is it because we killed more of them than anyone else or simply because we were the first to leave. Both of us appear to be immune, you would think that would make us a priority target." They were close enough now for him to get a better look at the creatures piloting the ships; each was clearly undead and had evidence of extensive surgery all over their bodies. Some were obviously enhancements and others showed no clear purpose, though few showed the same changes. "Whatever is behind this; they're sentient but apparently not sane."_

 _This got Franky's attention, "What? You're saying someone did this on purpose?"_

 _Lucci nodded, "Apparently. Every one of the zombies arriving by boat shows signs of extensive surgeries; something only a sentient being could perform. But the randomness of the alterations suggests that whoever performed this is not mentally sound or stable. Some look like they had the same procedure repeated several times while others have completely different changes. Many of the changes were either pointless or outright harmful to the creatures."_

 _Franky gave a humourless chuckle that bordered on hysteria, "So you're saying we're dealing with a mad scientist?" HehehehehahahahahahHAHAHA_ _ **HAHAHA!**_ _ARE YOU_ FUCKING _KIDDING ME! ONE FUCKING CRACKPOT GETS HIS HANDS ON SOMETHING HE SHOULDN'T AND THOUSANDS SUFFER FOR IT!" He growled angrily, but didn't dare attack the nearby ships._

 _Lucci simply stared at the man, unsure of what to do. He couldn't risk the emotional man attacking one of the ships and having this entire army firing on them. He briefly considered killing him before Franky turned to look at him; something in the man's eyes genuinely frightened him. "Heh, don't worry about me; I'm not stupid. Speaking of; did you contact your handlers yet? Much as I don't care for them I would say the world government is the only group with the resources to handle something like this… maybe."_

 _Lucci was stunned for a moment and almost attacked the cybernetic man before deciding against it; at this point what did it matter? "He slowly drew out the small black and white spotted transponder snail he always kept on his person and called said handler. A voice simply dripping with arrogance answered, "What? Tell me you have something useful and aren't just wasting my time."_

 _Lucci responded, 'Situation critical. All other team members dead. Cover blown."_

" _What! Did you kill the witnesses. How did all those fuck ups die!"_

 _Franky stared at him, a piercing intensity to his gaze. "No need. All witnesses dead… in fact, the entire population of Water 7 is presumed deceased."_

 _There was a pause before Spandam responded, voice filled with incredulity and more than a touch of condescension. "You killed an entire island, and your team, to cover up whatever you did?"_

 _Lucci sighed, "Negative, sir."_

 _Another pause, "Then what_ exactly _happened, hmm?"_

 _Lucci's voice remained steady, a facedé of calm coming over his face as he spoke. "A disease of some sort swept through the island, killing something like eighty to ninety percent of the population within roughly three days."_

 _A note of surprise entered Spandam's voice, "You said everyone was presumed dead; what happened to the rest?'_

 _Lucci's body shuddered near imperceptibly, though Franky's powerful eyes easily caught the motion. "They were murdered by the victims of the plague."_

 _Now Spandam's voice positively dripped with condescension, "Oh, indeed? But you said they died."_

 _Lucci nearly raised an eyebrow at Spandam's tone but his highly trained self control repressed the motion. "Yes, sir."_

" _Uh huh, then how did these corpses kill the rest of the population."_

 _Lucci glanced at the burning city, "They tore them apart. They woke up and attacked anyone that wasn't one of them."_

 _Spandam's condescension flowed like a river through the snail, "Let me get this straight. You're saying that a plague killed most of the people, then those people became zombies and killed the rest of the people?"_

 _Lucci nodded, though only Franky could see it. "Other than those who died in the fires or from the cannon blasts of the zombies' reinforcements."_

" _The Zombies had reinforcements?"_

 _Lucci glanced about him, "Hundreds of thousands of them."_

" _Uh huh… Well, you're obviously compromised. Goodbye Lucci, don't struggle when your replacement comes for you."_

 _For a second Lucci simply stood there, stunned. He could have sworn he heard glass shatter as his whole world crumbled around him. Minor pain drew his gaze slowly to his hand, where he saw blood slowly dripping from the cuts caused by the transponder's shell when he crushed it. He unclenched his hand slowly and began to remove the bits of shell form his hand, accepting a small roll of bandages from Franky without comment or question._

 _Franky watched Lucci in silence, he had heard everything the man's handler had said and understood, to a degree, what the man must have been feeling. Both men had just lost nearly everything they loved._

 _Their commiserating silence was broken by a quite cough. Lucci felt ice water run down his spine as tears started to silently fall from his eyes._

"You have never felt true loss, true misery; until you've had to lose your friends and family twice. Once to disease, and once to your own hand."

 _Lucci's head swiveled slowly, tears streaming down his face, to look at the only thing he had left in the world. Hattori had covered his beak with a wing, the white feathers now stained red. More small coughs rang out, and Hattori's body shook. "No, please no…" Lucci whispered, voice as broken as his soul._

 _The large white bird seemed to lose its balance, falling from his owner's shoulder. Lucci snached his treaured companion out of the air, cradling him in his arms as his little body was wracked with coughs and pain. Lucci's tears nearly washed away his only friends blood from his chest._

 _Franky watched the all too familiar (save for the bird; that was a new one) scene with sympathetic yet hardened eyes. "Would you prefer if I do it."_

 _Lucci snarled at him, "No! No… I'll… I'll do it." He would not leave the only thing he ever cared about to suffer, let alone become one of those things. One of his hands moved slowly up, gently cradling the bird's head as he whispered sweet, comforting nothings he had heard his victims say in the past. In one swift move he twisted his best friends head around and stabbed his index finger and thumb through the sides of his head. Just to be sure, he repeatedly finger pistoled Hattori's chest and abdomen; sobbing all the while._

 _Franky gently grabbed Lucci's arm, stopping the near catatonic man's continued mutilation of the only thing he ever cared for. Lucci slowly looked over at him, his eyes far away. Franky didn't bother with useless platitudes: he knew it would not be alright, it would never be alright. Instead he simply said, "We're gonna find the son of bitch who did this and we're gonna make him beg for death."_

 _Lucci nodded, unable to tear his eyes away from the body of his only friend. The fire of their burning home was reflected in both men's eyes; a symbol of hatred and resolve._

Franky's eyes focused back on the present, looking up at the tall captain that loomed over him. Sakazuki's face was as unyielding as ever: his faint scowl unwavering.

Sakazuki stared at the shorter man for a long moment; expression unreadable. His cold eyes locked with the bluenette's, seeing a faint impression of a fire still burning in them. He nodded after a while, "Alright. Then we must fortify this village and prepare for battle." He did not tell the man that he would also be planning how to get his crew out alive should their fortifications not hold.

Franky just watched as the large man walked away, apparently to talk to the almost equally tall men loitering about. His gaze left him to settle on Rob Lucci. When the two met he had pegged the man as a psychopath; his opinion had changed only a little since. Lucci was not a psychopath; but he may as well have been, he repressed his emotions so well. The only reason he changed his mind was the sharp dressed man's reaction to the death of his bird. The genuine anguish on the man's face (and more importantly; in his eyes) could not be faked.

His ponderings on his companions mental state were cut off by a sudden and intense increase in ambient temperature. He glanced towards the source and felt his jaw drop; Sakazuki had completely surrounded the town in twelve concentric circles of magma. The circles slowly rose, each taller than the last as they got closer to the town. As the magma began to cool from the bottom up he was stunned to see massive walls of steel, utterly featureless and tilting slightly outwards.

Akainu looked out at what would likely be a battle ground soon with a frown. He turned to Ussop as Kuzan stepped out and froze the entire area for miles, rendering the ground as close to frictionless as he could and layered they area with giant spikes angled at various angles (though all were facing away from the village.

Usopp looked up at the walking apocalypse that was his leader, an eyebrow raised. The large man asked with preamble, "Can you remove weapons from your person?"

The gunman almost spun a wild tale before he paused to consider the question. "I… I don't know; I've never tried."

Sakazuki nodded, unsurprised. "Try it. We do not have enough firepower to stand against an army of the size the cyborg indicated was coming."

Usopp looked into his captain's dark brown eyes, then glanced over to the rest of the crew with and nodded. He lifted his arm in front of him, watching it shift into a gatling gun with more intensity than he had in years. Slowly it began to change further; the barrel extending and a large, sturdy looking tripod forming. Eventually the whole device seemed to slide of his hand.

A beaming smile spread across his face as he manipulated the turret to rotate in a circle and then fire off into the air. With a satisfied smirk he set it to swivel in a wide arc. Sakazuki smirked, an odd feeling of pride welling up in him. "Good. Place them all around the walls."

* * *

 **Three Days Later**

* * *

Artificial light (courtesy of Borsalino) covered the village and its immediate surroundings. The beautiful artificial stars did nothing to quell the tense atmosphere. The only noise, save the wind, was the mechanical whir of the thousands of turrets completing and repeating their wide arcs. No one dared break the silence.

The Red Dogs (plus Franky and Lucci) were holed up atop a massive tower in the center of the town while the villagers manned the walls; having been given automatic rifles by Usopp (at Sakazuki's behest). Sakazuki had given them all a suitably impressive and inspiring speech full of absolute bullshit; they were cannon fire and his whole crew knew it. No one said a word about it.

There were ten walls, each a hundred feet taller than the last, with pools of magma between them. The back wall of every tower was full of upwards facing spikes, until it hit the artificial basin of magma between them. The tower was five hundred feet taller than the thousand foot tenth wall and had utterly featureless walls. Each wall was manned by dozens of civilians who Sakazuki handed a rifle, gave a vague description of how to use it and no way down.

The silence was broken by a gunshot, then several. None of the red dogs were surprised that Usopp, even as far from the front as he was, was the first to spot the enemy. Soon after numerous dials of many kinds started going off. No one else started firing for several minutes; until shadowy figures began to shamble their way through the noxious fog.

Townsfolk began to fire wildly into the fog, few bothering to aim at the shadowy figure; it mattered little. Their enemy was so numerous that a shot in their general direction was almost certain to hit something. Every bullet exploded on contact, releasing molten shrapnel along with their concussive force.

The turrets opened fire as soon as targets entered their arc, decimating vast swathes of the rotting monsters. The undead horrors smiled about on the ice, often impaling themselves on the numerous spikes.

Hundreds of the shambling horrors died in seconds, thousands when the Red Dogs opened fire; each adding their own unique brand of carnage to the mix. Sakazuki rained enormous (and explosive) fists of magma down all around the area, Usopp tunes upper bodies into a fine red mist with his extremely accurate, extremely high calibre and high explosive rounds, Robin showed an unsurprising skill with a rifle (though not nearly as good as Usopp) and liberally distributed acid laces headshots, Zoro, Lucci, and Sanji sent blades of wind through rows of enemies, Borsalino did as he had on Logue, Kuzan fired hundreds of thousands of icy arrows into the horde, freezing all they touched (to be swiftly trampled by their comrades), Galdino fired spears of wax that became wax soldiers in the field (displaying a level of control rarely ever seen) and would explode into wax needles upon their destruction, Franky fired the massive bazooka Usopp helpfully provided when he ran out of his own mini rockets, Walter… wished he had longer wires, and Nami and Chopper provided moral support… I suppose; it was more effective then the pot shots they took at the wall of writhing flesh. Thousands die under their onslaught… and thousands more took their place.

Zoro grit his teeth, "How many islands did these bastards destroy before this! There must be millions of the rotting fucks here!" He slashed his swords wildly into the air, cringing slightly when he accidentally cut a friendly in half (and put a significant gouge in the wall). The zombies had reached the first wall and were beginning to scale it by sheer weight of numbers. The conscripted soldiers were desperately firing down at the rapidly rising tide of flesh to no avail; for every zombie they killed a dozen more took its place. One soldier lost his balance and fell, screaming into the writhing mass; his gruesome death inspired the soldiers to fight harder (or, in some cases, blow their brains out).

Borsalino gave a slightly false laugh, "Well, at least they're all little more than cannon fire, ne? Barely any of them have any significant strength; even being quadrupled as it is."

One disgruntled conscript turned and targeted the Red Dogs; A massive fist of magma slammed down directly on him, killing him, several of the people around him, and melting a portion of the wall. Magma poured out of this portion as zombies poured in. Though dozens of them died to the fiery tidal wave, hundreds more made it through… until Sakazuki continued raining magma on that spot. He provided a bottleneck and used it to slaughter many more of them.

Unfortunately, while many were diverted from climbing the surrounding walls to the doomed breach; many more weren't and they flooded over the first wall, devouring those soldiers who still manned the wall and leaping over the sides… to either be impaled on the spikes or incinerated by what was left of the magma.

Unfortunately even this their shear numbers compensated for, as they slammed into the still very dense magma and burned along the surface their comrades slammed into their backs and began to walk atop their burning bodies. Though dozens were engulfed in flames, hundreds more made it to the next wall; the fire not burning them fast enough. Some had the fire smothered out by the same force that often crushed them; the endless march of their fellow undead. Others continued to climb even as their ragged armour and rotting flesh burned away.

The sight was horrific and demoralising to the defenders (especially those on the second wall) but the Red Dogs continued to rain death on the unending horde. Wall after wall fell as tears began to streak down the faces of those with weaker dispositions. Soldiers were openly sobbing as they desperately tried to hold back the horde that even now stretched on to the horizon. Eventually a stroke of luck met them at the ninth wall; the zombies were so burnt and chewed up by the weapon fire by this point that they fell apart before they could reach the top, often dieing simply from the fall. Unfortunately the pile of bodies (though being swiftly reduced to ashes by the pit of magma), was still building up. But for a moment the villagers felt hope.

Then the earth shock. And again. And again. Over and over a, rhythmic pounding that caused the titanic walls to shake. Slowly, a gigantic form became visible in the distant fog. Surviving soldiers weapons slid from their hands as their tenuous hope died a swift and violent death. Out of the fog stepped a titan; a giant to giants. Standing eye level with the tower this massive horned creature's every step killed dozens of its lesser kin, its single eye locked onto Sakazuki with a animalistic hatred.

Akainu stared at the titanic red skinned monster for a moment before turning and cuffing his brother over the head. "You just had to go and say that; didn't you."

Borsalino grumbled, rubbing the back of his head and aiming a finger at the monster's good eye; said eye vanished in a flash of light. Soon after the rest of the Red Dogs followed suit, aiming everything at the titanic monster. Acidic, explosive and magma-explosive bullets and rockets impacted the creature's thick hide; doing little more than pissing it off. Blades of wind that could slice buildings in two barely nicked it. Blasts of magma and light that could destroy small islands gouged shallow pits into its steel hard muscle and harder hide.

The titan responded with a roar; the shear force of which blasted a path through the lesser zombies and bent the first three walls inward at the point they faced it. Then it began to move, sprinting far faster than anything even half its size had any right to it was at the walls in seconds. It tore through the walls like wet tissue paper and didn't even seem to notice the magma that set it's lower legs aflame.

Sakazuki's ever present scowl deepened before, with a wave of his hand the magma he left as both the pits and inside the walls heated up, melting the walls. Nami and Chopper (possessing weaker stomachs than the rest) had to look away for a moment as Sakazuki murdered over a hundred survivors with a wave of his hand. They turned back in time to see him make a pushing gesture causing a massive wave of liquid fire to sweep over the remaining zombies, vanishing into the distance.

Seconds later, as the crew continued to throw everything they had at the massive giant, an absolutely apocalyptic spear of magma appeared on the horizon, swirling around and heading straight towards the titans back. The others quickly grasped what they needed to to and redoubled their attack; this time with the intent of distracting.

Hogback scowled at the tower from his position within his masterpiece, glaring darkly at the red suited man who commanded his comrades to attack. They had killed nearly all of his creations and were damaging Oars! How dare these plebeians destroy his work! Years of planning and hiding; kowtowing to that moronic Warlord for decades while he worked on his master work; his cure for death! And this imbeciles destroyed his army in one day!

He watched closely, before something behind him drew his attention. He saw the spear just a second too late, his shouted warning and mental command not enough to spare his greatest creation.

The Red Dogs smirked with grim satisfaction as the massive spear of magma pierced the titan's chest, its drill like motion aiding in penetrating its iron flesh. Sakazuki waved his hands like a conductor as the spear split up and began to wrap around and cover the titan.

Hogback snarled in fury, hiding within the Seastone walled bunker he had created in his creations skull. He could feel the heat rising around him as Oars was coated in molten metal. His scowl turned contemplative as he turned to look at his last resort; there tied to the wall and tortured was the near insensate form of Gecko Moriah. His body was engorged with hundreds of thousands of shadows; every victim the man had ever captured's shadow was presently in the incognizant man.

Hogback frowned, once he did this he would lose control of Oars; possibly permanently. He looked out the viewport in his creations hollow eye socket; before the magma fully covered it he caught a glimpse of that molten bastards smug smirk and something broke inside him. He turned back to Gecko; a more than slightly deranged grin on his face.

When the flailing titan was completely coated in magma the Red Dogs breathed a collective sigh of relief… only for it to turn into a stunned gasp as the magma suddenly collapsed upon the empty air where once was a mega gaint. As they frantically looked around a shadow fell over them. They slowly turned, many gulping down anxiety; there, standing behind them was a purple skinned giant so huge his horns pierced the upper yard.

Oars grinned down at them, his wounds rapidly healing. A thousand voices screamed in his head, but the loudest gave the simplest demand; kill everything. The Red Dogs leapt into their (heavily modified; courtesy of Rob and Franky) ship. The ship took off, flying under its own power (helped along by dozens of dials) and just barely avoided the giant's hand. Said hand went on to split the steel tower to its base. The nimble ship darted about, narrowly dodging the giants inordinately fast blows, its sheep head figurehead firing titanic beams of light (original design improved upon by Borsalino helpfully providing balls of crystallized light to improve the laser) and its many lesser laser cannons fired an endless barrage as the crew added their own firepower to the mix.

Attacks that once gouged deep wounds in the titan barely scorched his skin now and attacks that did less had no visible effect. Sakazuki's scowl deepened and he turned to Nami (who was piloting the now airship) and signaled to flee; they didn't have enough fuel to keep this up for long (the engines and modified dials were highly inefficient (Rob, having turned out to be quite the tinkerer, was still working on improving that(Franky seemed to have lost his creative drive when he had to tear apart and crush his best friends))).

The ship turned to flee when the giant shaved right in front of them, his battleship sized fist reared back. Borsalino, jumped off the side, grabbed the ship and used his specialised form of shave milliseconds before the ship impacted.

They reappeared right above the mega titan's head. Unfortunately the ship was not designed to move at such speeds and had taken large amounts of minor damage all over. Luckily none of the damage was debilitating and while it would need some repair, It should could still fly for now.

Akainu turned to Nami; once again signaling to flee before he was accosted by Franky. He whirled to attack the man but watched as he leapt off the ship. He shaved to the edge, the rest of the crew following suit slightly slower.

Franky released a wordless roar, firing his bazooka to gain the titans attention. Oars looked up at him and grinned opening his mouth wide to swallow the falling cyborg. As the metal man plummeted he looked into the purple titan's empty eye; and there he saw it. A fat, shark toothed man was laughing at him.

A dark grin spread across his face as he locked eyes with the man, the fire of his home once more reflected in his mechanical gaze. Oars jaw snapped shut behind him seconds later and he slowly opened his clenched fist. He smiled at the object he held; it was plain looking dial.

He smirked, "Gotcha, fucker. Reject." The dial in his hand glowed for a moment before a massive ball of light expanded out from it. This was not just a reject dial; this was a reject dial Borsalino had spent an entire day beating on at the speed of light, modified by Franky to remove its directionality. This was the dial equivalent of an atomic bomb.

Sakazuki felt an emptiness in one of his jacket pockets and, for the first time in years, his eyes widened as his hand slammed into the now empty pocket. He whirled around, "We need to go; NOW!" he shouted, a desperate panic in his voice. He turned to Borsalino, "Shave the ship away! You're the fastest!"

Kizaru looked at him in mild confusion, but didn't question him, quickly jumping off the ship to repeat his earlier action. The ship vanished and reappeared over ten miles away, the farthest Kizaru could take the ship without destroying it completely (and possibly liquefying the crew). As it was the ship was quite possibly irreparably damaged and the crew were feeling quite ill and sending glares at their captain, who was still staring at the mega giant. Nami was about to air her complaints when a massive ball of light spread rapidly from the giant's chest, consuming him utterly and going on to chew up miles of space; almost reaching the still fleeing Going Merry. The shock wave tossed the ship so far they cleared the edge of the Cumuloregalis; falling off the sky island. Or what once was a sky island; where once was a massive cloud was now a slowly dispersing ring.

A bell tolled as the Merry slowly fell from the sky; the ominous sound heralding their return to the earth and the churning sea of dreams below.


	13. Justice Burns

**Justice Burns**

Their journey nearly came to a halt while Lucci worked on getting their ship into a state where it would be able to get them anywhere. Unfortunately there was little he could do save for nailing scrap wood to the broken husk of a ship; the damage was extremely extensive. The keel was straight up snapped in several places and most of the rest was little more than pulp. Lucci was not a miracle worker; the fact the ship might, _might_ get them back to Jaya was damn close though. Jaya was on the horizon when they hit the water; it was still doubtful the ship would survive the journey.

Zoro scowled as he pumped obscenely huge weights, glaring at the water that dared seep through the cracks while Usopp (using Galdino's coerced assistance) and Lucci ran about; frantically patching up the horrific damage to the ship.

Kuzan (after being woken by water splashing his face) decided to simply freeze the ship solid. While this did keep it from falling apart and kept the water from pulling it down; it also meant that any slim chance of repairs were simply gone. Not that there really were any to begin with (only Usopp really held onto a phantasmal hope).

Hours later the frozen mockery of a ship beached itself on the ashen shore of what once was Mock Town. Little remained of the lawless town; burnt out husks crumbled in the wind and a pervasive silence filled the once boisterous island.

While the rest of the Red Dogs milled about, doing whatever it is they personally do to pass time (Robin trying (and failing) to subtly stay as far away from Rob Lucci as possible), Lucci moved towards the ruins; expression unchanging as he began to scrounge through the more intact hovels. Usopp raised an eyebrow, "Hey, slate-face; what'cha doin'?"

Lucci glanced over his shoulder at him, "Searching for a transponder snail." he responded, voice as blank as his face. Though whether this was from his conditioning or his exasperation; no one knew.

The liar blinked at the assassin, "But, we have one-" He glanced back at the ship, "On second thought I doubt it survived the fall… or Kuzan freezing everything." The sniper cringed slightly and joined the shipwright in his search.

Soon Usopp gave a victorious cry as he came up out of a pile of ash; sitting in his palm was a sickly but alive baby transponder snail. Its shell was grey (though that may have just been the ashes) and had some small cracks over it, it coughed up ash every few seconds but seemed otherwise unharmed.

Lucci snatched it from his hand and looked it over, wiping off the ashes to see it was indeed gray. The faintest hint of a smile appeared on his face as he set about calling a very specific number. Before he finished Borsalino was looming over him, physically stopping him from dialing. "Ooh, and just who are ya callin', ne?"

Lucci looked up at him, his expression unchanging. "One of Franky's black market contacts managed to get there hands on a significant amount of Adam wood. I was recently on an assignment to stir up unrest and civil war on the island that wood comes from; apparently it's so strong the elder stars are afraid to let it get out. If we're going to replace our ship I would assume the captain would want the best materials available."

Borsalino stared at him for a long moment, his sunglass catching the light and turning opaque… before he released his arm. "Alright then."

Lucci swiftly finished the call, intensely aware of the deceptively jovial eyes of the Yellow Monkey watching his every move. After a moment a gruff voice spoke up, suspiciously asking who was calling.

Lucci cleared his throat and opened his mouth, Franky's voice coming out. "Jacky! Ahh, sorry 'bout the different number but I ran into some trouble back home and lost my old one. Nothing my SUPER self couldn't handle though!" The crew stared at the disconcerting sight of Franky's exuberant voice coming out of Lucci's emotionless face.

"Jacky" was significantly less suspicious now, "I'd recognise that voice anywhere! Whatta ya need, Franky?"

"I recently came into quite a SUPER bit of money! You still have that Adam wood?"

"Yeah, how much you want?" "Jacky" seemed a bit surprised, though not shocked.

Even though Lucci's face didn't change the crew could _hear_ the non-existent smirk in his voice, "How much ya got?"

Usopp started clapping when Lucci hung up, baffling the normally unflappable man. "That was a hell of a performance there Lucci! Can you do any other impressions?" The liar eagerly asked.

Lucci looked around, seeing encouraging looks on the crews face and started doing different impersonations (impressions aren't for people who use them like he does). By the end of the day the stoic man was smiling faintly along side his laughing crewmates.

Three days later a ship arrived carrying the requested wood. As soon as it arrived Lucci was already setting up to build a (significantly larger) ship. Sakazuki turned to the confused sailors and produced a large amount of gold from his jacket (no need for them to know he just made it on the spot) to pay them.

A look of greed came over their apparent leader's face. The scarred man accepted the currency with a grin, puffing on a cigar as he foisted the job of swapping one heavy material for another on his crew. After a moment the Berri signs left his eyes and a frown overtook his face, "'Ey, where's Franky?"

Sakazuki stared at him for a moment. If it was just him he would have murdered the man and just stolen the supplies; fortunately for the man, Lucci had advised him that black market contacts could be useful. "You may not have heard but a significant portion of the Grand Line was recently rendered… uninhabitable. A mad man released a plague that killed a great many and caused irrational anger in the infected. Riots broke out quickly. Unfortunately, Franky, while immune to the disease itself, was slain by the rioters."

"Jacky's" eyes widened, a muttered "Holy shit…" leaving his lips.

Sakazuki nodded commiseratingly along, pretending to give a shit. "Yes, yes. You see, Franky always dreamed of making a ship to rival the Oro Jackson; and upon his death he entrusted this wish to Rob Lucci here." he pointed at the industriously working man dressed in a no longer ragged suit (he got a new one custom made before the siege; Franky hadn't bothered).

The shifty man's eyes widened and then narrowed at Lucci's name. "Ha, you had me going there for a second. Rob Lucci, friends with Franky? Bullshit."

Sakazuki scowled at the perceived insult to his crew member, "I did not say they were friends. All of Franky's friends were already dead by this point; he passed his dream to Lucci because he was the only living person he had even a vague relationship with who could hear his words."

"Jacky" laughed, "Naw, that ain't why I call bullshit!" His eyes hardened, "No, I'm calling you out because Rob Lucci is a murderous psychopath; he doesn't have friends. His handlers beat any affection out of that monster."

Sakazuki sighed, seeing Lucci twitch in the corner of his eyes. "Ah, fuck it." He clasped his suddenly molten hand on the much shorter man's head. "Jacky's" scream was cut off when his mouth was covered by molten gold. Soon a golden statue stood in the man's place, a look of agony and fear permanently carved into his face.

Lucci twitched, old instincts telling him to silence the man for blowing his cover… cover he wasn't under anymore. For an organisation he no longer worked for. He shook off the feeling and went back to work, blinking when a truncated scream filled the air.

Sakazuki picked the man up and fired him at the bewildered workers; turning one into chunky salsa before he could draw his pistol. He was about to move on to the rest when something slammed down on top of three of them and proceeded to crash through the boat.

Akainu blinked, then looked at the ash choked sky, "The hell…?" he muttered, idly executing two remaining mooks with magma bullets to the head. He walked past their smoking corpses to peer down at the hole in the ship. An unnatural darkness filled the ship, making it appear as if an inky black wall had formed were the boards ended.

He turned his hand to lava to try to cast light into the ship; to no avail. Even Borsalino (when he appeared next to him) couldn't illuminate the ship. The brother's glanced at each other, shrugged, and jumped down.

While Akainu and Kizaru explored the unnaturally darkened ship, Usopp was staring listlessly at the remains of the Merry, tears slowly streaming down his face. Memories of their journey flashing through his mind. Robin walked up behind him, "What's wrong, Mr. Sniper?" she queried.

He slowly turned to look at her, "Merry… she's been part of this crew as long as I have… and now were just leaving her to die here?"

Robin raised an eyebrow, "It's just a ship, Mr. Sniper."

He whirled on her with a snarl, "She is NOT JUST A **SHIP**! I consider her a member of the crew!"

"Weather or not she's a crew member; she's still not human." The archaeologist turned to look at the ragged remains of the former ship of the Red Dogs. "Besides, Lucci said she can't be fixed."

Usopp's fingers kept phasing in an out of pistol form as he glared daggers at her. "Grrrr, Chopper's not human either and we don't just leave him to die when he's hurt; do we!"

Robin frowned, "The difference is Chopper is sentient and alive; Merry's not."

Their conversation was interrupted by an unfamiliar voice, "Nah, the difference is that this "Chopper" isn't fatally injured. Heh, suppose it won't matter soon." Usopp, seeing the fear in Robin's normally unflappable eyes, went to turn around… he didn't make it halfway before he was engulfed in flames. Over his screams the same sardonic voice spoke up, "Seeing as you'll all be dead before the end of the day."

An icy hand clamped down on the screaming sniper, a thin layer of ice covering him and dousing the flames. "Now now, no need for that." Kuzan frowned, his sleepy eyes locking on the much shorter man.

Said man tilted his hat up with a flaming finger, a faintly cruel grin on his face, "Ah, "Blue Pheasant" Kuzan… 1.76 billion beri. Brother to "Yellow Monkey" Borsalino, 2.3 billion beri and "Red Dog" Sakazuki, 3.27 billion beri. Wanted for the genocide and complete destruction of seven islands, the murder of two warlords, and attempting to overthrow a member nation. Heh, you're New World wanted already… amusing."

Kuzan raised an eyebrow, "That's quite a bit of information you have there…?" he trailed off, silently filing away the second warlord the Red Dogs were accredited with killing; likely a victim of the plague.

Robin answered for the man, "Th-thats Marine admiral Portgas D. Ace. This man makes up one tenth of the World Governments second strongest force."

Kuzan lazily smirked at the man, "Oh, a big shot are ya? Doesn't matter; you attacked my friend, now you have to die."

Ace didn't wait for the ice-man to move, launching a blast of fire at him. Kuzan tossed Robin and Usopp away just before the conflagration reached him. The crew (save those currently inside a darkened transport ship) cried out in horror (Lucci's eyes slightly widened) as the co-first mate was engulfed in flame.

Ace laughed as the fire spread to the ruins of the Merry. As he doubled over a figure became visible in the flame, slowly walking out. Ace finally took notice as Kuzan stepped out of the fire covered in frost. Surprise quickly turned to rage as he snarled and fired little balls of fire like dual machine guns. The fireballs impacted the ice-man with small explosions… doing absolutely nothing to the Blue Pheasant as he slowly turned completely to ice. "Graahh! Why won't you just die already!"

Kuzan vanished and reappeared right in front of the admiral, an icy hand coated in haki clasping around his throat. Ace clawed at the massive hand cutting off his air as black ice began to crawl over him. Kuzan chuckled, "Sorry kid, just a bad matchup I guess; your fire's just not hot enough." Ace desperately blasted at his captor's face… to no effect; he couldn't even knock the lazy smile off his face. He tried to turn to fire and flee to no avail; he couldn't escape Kuzan's haki coated hands and the equally empowered ice rapidly consuming him didn't help. Soon his struggles slowed and before long his whole body was completely frozen. "Hmph, World Government second best, huh?" with a wave of his hand he shattered the fire-man, "If this is what they consider strong, the government won't be a problem." He walked over to check up on Usopp, stepping on a chunk of what once was the admiral's head and crushing it further.

Robin stared in numb shock at the crumbled admiral; a man who haunted her nightmares was just murdered with contemptuous ease. Lucci wasn't faring much better; a figure he had always been told was the pinnacle of "Justice" couldn't even scratch the lazy giant of the Red Dogs. "Where did these monsters come from… how could Cipher Pol have never heard of them?"

Kuzan was suddenly behind him, laying a hand on his shoulder. "We came from the East Blue and your Pol never heard of us because we've only been a crew for a few weeks now; though I'm sure you've heard of "Blue Pheasant" Kuzan and "Yellow Monkey" Borsalino. Sakazuki only set out very recently; he spent most of his time training on a fairly isolated island. Mostly because his powers are rather more naturally destructive than ours and he didn't want to accidentally kill his crew." Lucci slowly turned to look at the man, an unconscious shiver passing through him at the cold look in his eyes. Suddenly Aokiji smiled and patted the shorter man's shoulder before walking away. He turned his head with a lazy smirk, "Doesn't matter though; you're one of us now. No matter what they send after you we'll have your back. Whether it's admirals or our own powers; you'll be fine."

Lucci stared at him in silence, Spandam's parting statement to him replaying in his mind before it was replaced by the image of an admiral helpless in the hands of the co-firstmate. Suddenly his attention was drawn to the flames of the Merry when the fires slowly crawled across the ground. Words formed in the flame.

" **Never underestimate the WG!"** The words weren't there for twenty seconds before the ship exploded; blowing nearby Red Dogs away. A towering pillar of flame formed a second later. Slowly, the tower swirled into the shape of a man. "Heh heh heh heh heh!" His burning eyes locked on Nico Robin and he pointed a flaming finger at her, "Hell awaits, Devil Child!" The burning figure faded into the wind, leaving a sinister laughter echoing after him.

Sanji pulled out a new cigarette to replace the one he nearly swallowed, "Well… that happened."

Lucci slowly nodded in response, joining Sanji in his impression of a chimney, "What I'm wondering is why he didn't press the attack? Why just flee when he could have killed at least a couple of us."

Robin shook of her shock and turned to look at Lucci, "A "couple of us"?" she questioned incredulously.

He turned to her, his conditioning allowing him to regain his cool far quicker than most, "If he launched a surprise attack he could have killed some of us before Kuzan could have stopped him."

At this Chopper looked up from where he was treating Usopp's serious injuries (having already assessed the others as superficial at worst), "A-actually… he may still be here." The crew turned to him with curious (and more than a little concerned) looks. He shuffled nervously, "I-if he can change the composition of his flames a-and control the heat like Sakazuki can; he could be turned to invisible methanol flame, sticky napalm, or poisonous white phosphor- erk!" He was cut off by a hand of flame clamping around his throat.

"Tisk tisk, you just had to open your big mouth; didn't you little raccoon dog." The admiral smirked at the doctor. He whirled, using the doctor to block a spear of ice protruding from Aokiji's palm.

Kuzan twisted his hand… and stabbed right through both doctor and marine. Blood spewed from both their mouths as the haki coated icicle pierced their abdomen.

Ace flared away, reappearing a short distance away and clutching the hole in his gut while Chopper slid off Aokiji's retracting blade. "Wow, you're one ruthless son of a bi- Argh!" A fist of magma pierced the fire-man's back, protruding from his chest.

Akainu pulled his hand from the admiral's chest, allowing his body to fall to the earth. He sneered down at the dying man before turning to assess his doctor's condition. Seeing the frozen wound was not fatal he turned to the crew, "Looks like he'll be going home to Whitebeard in a box… or at least his head will." He picked up the admiral's hat to join Crocodile's hook as a trophy.

Zoro obliged with a smirk, severing the admiral's head in one clean swipe. Robin blinked as she saw something change in the corner of her vision. Turning to look at it she raised an eyebrow, "Do you have a devil fruit, Mr. Psychopath."

Lucci and Sakazuki both turned to look at her, opposite responses on their lips. Robin sighed and pointed at Lucci, who shook his head and spoke up, "No. The Government was going to send me one but this whole… event occurred before I could receive it."

She nodded and turned to point at a colourful fruit that had just dropped off a nearby tree, "Would you like one? I rather imagine you can guess what it is considering it showed up seconds after Mr. Captain killed the admiral."

Lucci walked over to the fruit, kicking it up into his hand and looking it over. "Hmm, you're right, this is definitely the Flame-Flame fruit." He paused, turning to the watching Sakazuki, "Do you want me to eat it, Captain?"

Sakazuki raised an eyebrow, "Do _you_ want to?" he countered.

Lucci was floored, he had never been asked that question before. He slowly looked down at the fruit in his hand; images of his time in the CP-9 and his brief time with the Red Dogs flashing before his eyes. He clenched them shut as his last moments as a Cipher Pol agent repeated. "Yes Captain. Yes I do."

Akainu stared at him for a moment before nodding and waving his hand dismissively, "Then go ahead." Lucci nodded and took a bite; only his extensive conditioning keeping him from vomiting when the horrendous taste hit him.

Borsalino laughed at the sour expression on his face, "Hahahahahah! Forgot to warn ya 'bout the taste!"

Everyone did a double take; standing next to the Yellow Monkey… was a silhouette; or so it seemed. A tall humanoid figure seemingly made of depthless darkness, its only visible features a gigantic glowing cheshire grin and two equally luminous unblinking eyes.

" **Kishishishishishi! Aw, what's the problem!"** The creature's smile widened, " **Are you all gettin' worked up over little ol' me? Kishishishishi!"**

Sanji, deeming the situation serious enough (and being already seriously unnerved by previous events) produced two kitchen knives the size (and shape) of short swords, and took up a position in front of his fallen crew members. Sakazuki had rather… poignantly elucidated the possible consequences of intentionally limiting yourself. He (quite literally) pounded it into his head that if any of the crew died because he couldn't set aside his pride and fight to his fullest capabilities he would be blamed.

Borsalino laughed, patting the creature on the shoulder, "Hahahaha! don't worry about Okkeg here." His sunglasses flashed as he turned his head to the so named Okkeg. "Turns out, we've killed _two_ warlords now." Walter pumped his fist in the background before quickly attempting to look dignified again. "See, Gekko Moriah was inside that super giant. He had been building up a pseudo-zombie army for a while until his doctor turned on him and turned them into real zombies." He kicked the admirals corpse a few time before spitting on him. "Psycho-doc decided to keep his boss around; mostly to torture him, but he also kept him around for one particular aspect of his powers." He started to play hacky-sack with the admiral's body. "Gekko had the shadow-shadow fruit; and of its many powers the two that are relevant are the ability to make their shadow form and fight for them and steal other people's shadows and use them to empower himself or others. See, Hogback, the scientist, made him dump all the shadows he had into the titan we fought… including his own."

" **Kishishishishi! And that's where I come in! See, when your blue-haired friend blew the fuck up, he vaporised Gekko, Hogback, and Oars! Hundreds of thousand's of shadows poured outta the space where Oars once stood… or they should have. Ya see, Hogback did something strange ta ol' Gekko; something that made it so he could keep the stolen shadows even after their owner died. Then Gekko went and died and all them shadows had nowhere ta go!"** Okkeg pointed a thumb at his chest, " **So they coalesced inta me! Kishishishishishishishi!"** His glowing grin grew even further… Before shrinking slowly. " **Which means I was literally born yesterday, given I have only scraps of memories."**

Zoro smirked, "Heh, stick with us and you'll make plenty." The rest of the Red Dogs nodded in confirmation.

Sanji, having slipped his knives back to where ever he got them, lit another cigarette. He took a drag and blew a cloud of smoke, "Ha, they may not all be good memories; but there will be memories alright."

Nami promptly smacked him over the head, "Now why'd ya have to go an' say that, moron!"

Lucci walked back to the beginnings of their new ship, lighting a black cigarette with his new powers as he knelled down to keep working.

Sakazuki scowled at the ashes of their former ship while Kuzan headed over to Chopper. A gigantic gold and silver cross formed in his hands before he slammed it into the ground. Borsalino planted jewels of crystallized light in the indents Sakazuki made. "A Red Dog died here… and she shall never be forgotten. Any who tarnish this grave marker will be hunted to the ends of the Earth; and when we catch them their death will not be swift."

Kuzan nodded his head in respect to the Merry's grave marker as he walked over to the shivering form of one Tony Tony Chopper. He knelled down next the the teddy bear sized reindeer man; flinching at the fear in his eyes. "Hey little man, how ya doin?"

Chopper stared up at the iceman, "Y-you… you stabbed me." Fear and accusation laced his words.

Kuzan sighed with a nod, "Yes I did. But if you think for a second I didn't aim specifically so you wouldn't be fatally injured you're mistaken. I could have stabbed you through the head and got him in the heart; but I didn't. I deliberately froze the edge of the wound over to stop the bleeding. You should be able to assist your own recovery quite easily with your medical knowledge and skill."

Chopper stared at him for a moment longer before his head slowly lowered to inspect his wound. "You're right; a few days and I'll be fine after minor surgery." His eyes returned to the tall man's, "You help me cryofreeze new samples from now on and we're even."

Kuzan nodded with a smirk, "Done."

Nami took no notice of the little interactions going on around her; her eyes still locked on the body of the Admiral. "D-did that really happen…? Did we just kill an Admiral?!" her voice took on a hysterical edge at the end. Her panic attack was interrupted by a large hand clasping her shoulder.

"This trash is in no way indicative of the true limits of the world government's power. The things above him are the stuff of nightmares." Borsalino turned her to face him, "We are slightly above admiral level; so this fight easily could have gone either way were it one on one. However, should a Fleet Admiral or the dread High Admiral deicide to personally handle us..." His glasses caught the light and turned opaque. "We would be massacred.' He shrugged, "Maybe my brothers and I could hold off a Fleet Admiral long enough to escape, we might even get lucky and kill him if he doesn't take us seriously right of the bat. There's really no need to worry about the HIgh Admiral for now; he never leaves Marineford."

Nami looked up at him, her terrified expression fading into mild confusion, "So… did we just get lucky?"

Borsalino sighed, "In a way, yes. Had Kuzan not surprised him enough that he didn't see Sakazuki coming he could have danced around us and butchered you. He was an admiral; arrogant as he was he couldn't have been stupid and kept that rank. He would have seen our strength and his own disadvantages and wouldn't have fought us head on. Had he gone for all of you right off the bat and tried to do as much damage as he could, he very well may have butchered the rest of the crew." Nami's wide eyed horror indicated that, perhaps, that wasn't the most comforting thing to say. Borsalino shrugged, "Just being honest; there's a reason we still train."

She blinked up at him, mouth gaping. "You… you are terrible at comforting people!"

He sheepishly scratched the back of his head, "Eh, would ya prefer a comforting lie or a harsh truth?"

She didn't even hesitate, "A lie! This situation is exactly what little white lies are made for!"

The Yellow Monkey shrugged, the stars on his coat seeming to twinkle from the motion, "In that case; me and my brothers could absolutely wreck the High Admiral with our hands tied behind our backs!" He gave her thumbs up and a shining smile.

She threw her hands up with an exasperated groan, "It's too late now! You can't just- Argh!" She dropped her arms with a defeated sigh, turning to walk away, "I give up; you're hopeless."

As she walked off to examine the Merry's gravemarker Borsalino smirked; she hadn't even realised she wasn't afraid anymore as she walked away.


End file.
